Actinomycetes in relation to taste and odour in drinking water: Myths, tenets and truths

Occurrence of odor problems in drinking water of major cities across China

“…This is produced mainly by cyanobacteria or actinomycetes [14,15]. Septic and swampy odors are usually the result of human influences: either directly due to wastewater dumpling, accidental spillage or agricultural runoff; or indirectly due to the excessive growth of odor producing aquatic organisms in eutrophic waters [11,16].…”

Contribution of Streptomyces in sediment to earthy odor in the overlying water in Xionghe Reservoir, China

“…For sites A and C, the maximum geosmin concentration occurred in November 2007, whereas for site B, the highest geosmin concentrations occurred in March 2008 (1926.7 ng kg À1 dw À1 ) and in November 2007 (1753.8 ng kg À1 dw À1 ). Previous studies have shown that actinomycetes are mainly found in terrestrial environments and can produce geosmin and 2-MIB, which could be introduced into water and contribute to the occurrence of odorants in the water column (Zaitlin and Watson, 2006). It has been estimated that in soil up to 8.7 mg kg À1 geosmin and 12.2 mg kg À1 2-MIB may be produced (Stahl and Parkin, 1996), which are higher than the geosmin concentrations recorded in this study (up to 5.28 mg kg À1 dw À1 ).…”

“…Moreover, the Oscillatoria found in sediments has been observed not to produce geosmin in vitro. In addition to actinomycetes, fungi are generally predominant in terrestrial environments (Zaitlin and Watson, 2006), and some genera, such as Penicillium, Aspergillus and Botrytis (La Guerche et al, 2005;Dionigi and Ingram, 1994;Bö rjesson et al, 1993), have also been shown to produce geosmin and/or 2-MIB in the food industry. But no evidence shows that they are the dominant geosmin/2-MIB producers in water bodies.…”

“…Indeed, geosmin and 2-MIB were originally isolated and identified from actinomycetes (Gerber and Lechevalier, 1965). Actinomycetes, such as species belonging to the genera Streptomyces, Actinomadura, Micromonospora, Actinomyces and Nocardia, are sources of these two odorous compounds, with Streptomyces being the main producer (Schrader and Summerfelt, 2010;Zaitlin and Watson, 2006). Production of geosmin and 2-MIB varies significantly when actinomycetes are cultivated under different conditions of temperature, pH, carbon dioxide, phosphorus, and other nutrients (Schrader and Blevins, 2001;Dionigi and Ingram, 1994).…”

Study of Geosmin and 2-Methylisoborneol (MIB) Producers in Phayao Lake, Thailand

“…This in turn contributed to the associated International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics earthy-musty odour detected in the lake. Zaitlin and Watson [16] reported that Streptomyces are the major producers of the geosmin and MIB in terrestrial soil environments. High concentrations of geosmin in lake water were recorded in certain sampling points from several collection periods (S4 in June 2012; S1-6 in September 2012 and; S4-6 in November 2012) particularly at S1-6 (up to 3.74 µgL -1 ) and MIB at S4 (0.086 µgL -1 ) in September 2012 in the lake despite low abundance of potential odour-producing cyanobacteria during these periods.…”