Bacterial profiling in brine samples of the Emalahleni Water Reclamation Plant, South Africa, using 454-pyrosequencing method

Abstract

A metagenomic approach was applied using 454-pyrosequencing data analysis for the profiling of bacterial communities in the brine samples of the water reclamation plant. Some physicochemical characteristics of brine samples were also determined using standard methods. Samples ranged from being lightly alkaline to highly alkaline (pH 7.40-10.91) throughout the various treatment stages, with the salinity ranging from 1.62 to 4.53 g L(-1) and dissolved oxygen concentrations ranging from 7.47 to 9.12 mg L(-1). Phenotypic switching was found to occur due to these physicochemical parameters. Microbial diversities increased from those present in Stage I reactor (six taxonomic groups) to those in Reverse Osmosis (RO) stage I (17 taxonomic groups), whereas in the second phase of the treatment, it increased in Stage II clarifier (14 taxonomic groups) followed by a decrease in RO stage II (seven taxonomic groups). Overall, seven phyla were detected, apart from many bacterial sequences that were unclassified at the phylum level. The most dominant phylum found was Proteobacteria accounting for 59% of the total sequences. A blastn sequence similarity search showed that the majority of the sequences (56%) were homologous to the uncultured bacterial species, underlining the vast untapped bacterial diversity.

Taxonomic and Functional Distribution of Bacterial Communities in Domestic and Hospital Wastewater System: Implications for Public and Environmental Health

“…This suggests that higher concentrations of antibiotics affect bacterial population dynamics as much as it promotes dissemination of antibiotic resistance [ 51 ]. Despite the observed bacterial phyla richness among the samples analysed in this study, as in other studies also, it is either the Proteobacteria or the Firmicutes whose predominance has been observed across a range of wastewater samples [ 2 , 32 , 52 , 53 ]. The dominance of these two phyla could be correlated to their capacity to survive in extreme environmental conditions and high contaminant levels [ 1 ], and their possible resistance against the detected antibiotics.…”

Metagenomic analysis of microbial community of an Amazonian geothermal spring in Peru

“…To overcome the limitations and to gain high taxonomic resolution of bacterial population in extreme habitats, culture-independent 16S rRNAs amplicon based metagenome sequencing became a common practice [2] . Both 454 (Roche) and Illumina platforms are now largely used to study metagenome and microbial diversity [3] , [4] but the most recent and advanced Illumina MiSeq/HiSeq sequencing platform provides a very distinguish and high quality view of microbial composition than other sequencing technologies [5] .…”

Evaluation of Heavy Metal Removal from Wastewater in a Modified Packed Bed Biofilm Reactor

“…A hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2 hours (previously optimised in another study) [ 20 ] was also for this study. It should be mentioned that the bacterial mass of the activated sludge was determined as described by Sekar et al [ 21 ]. The bacterial mass at the inlet and outlet was predominant (98.9%) with the following bacterial species: Acinetobacter baumanni , Enterobacter gergoviae , Endwardsiella hoshinae , Klebsiella pheumoniae , Acinetobacter lwoffii , Moraxella lacunta , Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas putida , Acinetobacter haemolyticus , Enterobacter cloacae , Pseudomonas stutzeri , Aeromonas hydrophilia , Aeromonas sobria , Salmonella sp , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Citrobacter koseri , Aeromonas salmonicida .…”