ABSTRACT
Lascaux Cave in France contains one of the best-known examples of rock art in the world made up of numerous Palaeolithic paintings and engravings. Except for a few previous studies, the majority of papers available on the microbiology of Lascaux Cave have been published since 2009 and cover a variety of topics such as the composition of the microbial communities (bacteria, fungi and amoebae) dwelling on different substrata, paying special attention to the black stains, the relationships between the microorganisms and arthropods, the management, such as the intense biocide treatments, etc. An aerobiological study focused on the cultivable bacteria and fungi of Lascaux Cave was also carried out in 2010. These data offered a representative inventory of airborne microorganisms isolated from diverse halls in two different seasons. In order to evaluate new aerobiological methods, the aim of the present study was to characterise the airborne bacterial and fungal communities from the Passageway, a key area connecting the main axes of Lascaux Cave, using cultureindependent methods such as the construction of clone libraries based on ribosomal genes. The results were compared with those previously achieved by culturing in the same area, and discussed according to the knowledge acquired in recent years on the microbial ecology of the cave. Based on these data, we can conclude that culture-independent methods provided valuable information identifying the microorganisms more precisely and rapidly, avoiding the limitations imposed by culturing. In addition, these molecular techniques showed a significantly higher sensitivity. Therefore, such methods should be included in future aerobiological studies in caves or any other environment to complement the traditional culture methods.
