Microbiomes in drinking water treatment and distribution: A meta-analysis from source to tap

Thom, Claire; Smith, Cindy J.; Moore, Graeme; Weir, Paul; Ijaz, Umer Zeeshan

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2022.118106

Cited by 46 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Total richness and number of city-specific ASVs were highest in Copenhagen and Warsaw, but much lower in Athens and Rome. Drinking water systems without a disinfectant residual are known to be richer than those with a residual (21, 22), so the absence of chemical disinfection in Copenhagen’s public water supply likely explains why it had the richest premise plumbing communities, the largest number of city-specific ASVs, the greatest dispersion among samples, and the greatest beta diversity separation from the other cities, accounting for 13.5% of variance across the data set. A possible reason of such high richness of Warsaw compared with Athens and Rome, although the water is treated with chlorine dioxide, it is supplied originally from the Vistula river and the Dębe Dam lake that may be microbiome rich bodies of water.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial communities of premise plumbing systems in four European cities, and their association with culturable Legionella

Scaturro

Chierico

Motro

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Legionella species are Gram negative, facultative, intracellular bacteria found in natural and engineered water systems. Understanding the bacterial interactions underlying the success of Legionella in aquatic environments could be beneficial for control. We aimed to profile, by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, the bacterial communities in premise plumbing systems of buildings in four European cities (Copenhagen, Warsaw, Rome, Athens), and identify positive and negative associations of specific community members to culturable Legionella. The coarse taxonomic composition was similar across the four cities, but Copenhagen and Warsaw had richer, more diverse communities than Athens and Rome, with a greater number of city-specific amplicon sequence variants (ASVs). The cities had statistically significant differences in bacterial communities at the ASV level, with relatively few shared ASVs. Out of 5,128 ASVs, 73 were classified as Legionella, and one or more of these were detected in most samples from each city (88.1% overall). Interestingly, the relative abundance of Legionella ASVs did not correlate with Legionella culture status. Overall, 44.2% of samples were Legionella culture positive: 71.4% in Warsaw, 62.2% in Athens, 22.2% in Rome, and 15.2% in Copenhagen. 54 specific ASVs and 42 genera had significant positive or negative associations with culturable Legionella. Negative associations included Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter. Positive associations included several Nitrospira ASVs and one classified as Nitrosomodaceae oc32, ASVs in the amoeba-associated genera Craurococcus-Caldovatus and Reyranella, and the predatory genus Bdellovibrio. Some of these associations are well supported by laboratory studies, but others are the opposite of what was expected. This highlights the difficulties in translating pure culture results to into complex real-life scenarios. However, these positive and negative associations held across the four cities, across multiple buildings and plumbing compartments. This is important because developing better control measures, including probiotic approaches, will require an understanding of ecological relationships that can be generalised across different engineered water systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial communities of premise plumbing systems in four European cities, and their association with culturable Legionella

Scaturro

Chierico

Motro

et al. 2022

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Considering drinking water microbiome research, a recent meta-analysis [5] of existing and available Illumina 16S rRNA datasets from drinking water source, drinking water treatment (DWTP) and drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) calculated a total of 22,754 unique taxa. This impressive diversity in terms of bacterial DNA sequences has been tracked from source to the tap: the highest degree of sequence diversity in terms of richness and Shannon index values came from untreated water, but a reduction in these values was evident in DWTP and DWDS groups.…”

Section: A Biodiversity Mattermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Clearly, DWDS hosts extensive microbiomes with diverse biofilm communities, depending on several factors, such as flux and other hydraulic variables, but also the interaction with other microorganisms. A core microbiome is hard to be identified, considering differences in potabilization treatments, operational practices, and distribution system characteristics [5,23].…”

Section: Microbial Biodiversity In Dwtp and Dwdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The meta-analyses conducted by Thom and colleagues [5] resolved the core microbiome of DWDS and proposed as prevalent taxa Sphingomonas (Alpha-Proteobacteria), an uncultured Rubinsphaeraceae (Planctomycetes), and Hyphomicrobium (Alpha-Proteobacteria) in DWDS bulk water and Sphingomonas, an uncultured Rubinsphaeraceae, and Pseudomonas (Alpha-Proteobacteria) in DWDS biofilm.…”

Section: Microbial Biodiversity In Dwtp and Dwdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the whole, more and more data suggest that water treatments (in particular chlorination) significantly reduce overall species abundance and richness. Conversely, more stochastic processes governed the assembly of microbial communities in DWDS biofilm [5].…”

Section: Microbial Biodiversity In Dwtp and Dwdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

It’s a Long Way to the Tap: Microbiome and DNA-Based Omics at the Core of Drinking Water Quality

Bruno

Agostinetto

Fumagalli

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Microbial communities interact with us and affect our health in ways that are only beginning to be understood. Microorganisms have been detected in every ecosystem on Earth, as well as in any built environment that has been investigated. Drinking water sources, drinking water treatment plants and distribution systems provide peculiar microbial ecological niches, dismantling the belief of the “biological simplicity” of drinking water. Nevertheless, drinking water microbiomes are understudied compared to other microbiomes. Recent DNA sequencing and meta-omics advancements allow a deeper understanding of drinking water microbiota. Thus, moving beyond the limits of day-to-day testing for specific pathogenic microbes, new approaches aim at predicting microbiome changes driven by disturbances at the macro-scale and overtime. This will foster an effective and proactive management of water sources, improving the drinking water supply system and the monitoring activities to lower public health risk. Here, we want to give a new angle on drinking water microbiome research. Starting from a selection of 231 scientific publications on this topic, we emphasize the value of biodiversity in drinking water ecosystems and how it can be related with industrialization. We then discuss how microbiome research can support sustainable drinking water management, encouraging collaborations across sectors and involving the society through responsible research and innovation.

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From source to house: unraveling the seasonal effect of water distribution system on drinking water quality of poultry farms under Egyptian environmental condition

Kamal,

Alhotan,

Al Sulaiman

et al. 2024

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Microbiomes in drinking water treatment and distribution: A meta-analysis from source to tap

Cited by 46 publications

References 63 publications

Bacterial communities of premise plumbing systems in four European cities, and their association with culturable Legionella

Bacterial communities of premise plumbing systems in four European cities, and their association with culturable Legionella

It’s a Long Way to the Tap: Microbiome and DNA-Based Omics at the Core of Drinking Water Quality

From source to house: unraveling the seasonal effect of water distribution system on drinking water quality of poultry farms under Egyptian environmental condition

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