The subsurface realm is colonized by microbial communities to depths of 41000 meters below the seafloor (m.b.sf.), but little is known about overall diversity and microbial distribution patterns at the most profound depths. Here we show that not only Bacteria and Archaea but also Eukarya occur at record depths in the subseafloor of the Canterbury Basin. Shifts in microbial community composition along a core of nearly 2 km reflect vertical taxa zonation influenced by sediment depth. Representatives of some microbial taxa were also cultivated using methods mimicking in situ conditions. These results suggest that diverse microorganisms persist down to 1922 m.b.sf. in the seafloor of the Canterbury Basin and extend the previously known depth limits of microbial evidence (i) from 159 to 1740 m.b.sf. for Eukarya and (ii) from 518 to 1922 m.b.sf. for Bacteria.

This study deals with the effects of hydrodynamic functioning of hard-rock aquifers on microbial communities. In hard-rock aquifers, the heterogeneous hydrologic circulation strongly constrains groundwater residence time, hydrochemistry, and nutrient supply. Here, residence time and a wide range of environmental factors were used to test the influence of groundwater circulation on active microbial community composition, assessed by high throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA. Groundwater of different ages was sampled along hydrogeologic paths or loops, in three contrasting hard-rock aquifers in Brittany (France). Microbial community composition was driven by groundwater residence time and hydrogeologic loop position. In recent groundwater, in the upper section of the aquifers or in their recharge zone, surface water inputs caused high nitrate concentration and the predominance of putative denitrifiers. Although denitrification does not seem to fully decrease nitrate concentrations due to low dissolved organic carbon concentrations, nitrate input has a major effect on microbial communities. The occurrence of taxa possibly associated with the application of organic fertilizers was also noticed. In ancient isolated groundwater, an ecosystem based on Fe(II)/Fe(III) and S/SO4 redox cycling was observed down to several 100 of meters below the surface. In this depth section, microbial communities were dominated by iron oxidizing bacteria belonging to Gallionellaceae. The latter were associated to old groundwater with high Fe concentrations mixed to a small but not null percentage of recent groundwater inducing oxygen concentrations below 2.5 mg/L. These two types of microbial community were observed in the three sites, independently of site geology and aquifer geometry, indicating hydrogeologic circulation exercises a major control on microbial communities.

The ubiquitous use of antimicrobial chemicals may have undesired consequences, particularly on microbes in buildings. This study shows that the taxonomy and function of microbes in indoor dust are strongly associated with antimicrobial chemicals—more so than any other feature of the buildings. Moreover, we identified links between antimicrobial chemical concentrations in dust and culturable bacteria that are cross-resistant to three clinically relevant antibiotics. These findings suggest that humans may be influencing the microbial species and genes that are found indoors through the addition and removal of particular antimicrobial chemicals.

The built environment contains a variety of microorganisms, some of which pose critical human health risks (e.g., hospital-acquired infection, antibiotic resistance dissemination). We uncovered a combination of complex biological functions that may play a role in bacterial survival under the presumed selective pressures in a model built environment—the International Space Station—by using an approach to compare pangenomes of bacterial strains from two clinically relevant species (B. cereus and S. aureus) isolated from both built environments and humans. Our findings suggest that the most crucial bacterial functions involved in this potential adaptive response are specific to bacterial lifestyle and do not appear to have direct impacts on human health.

Summary Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) contain high density and diversity of viruses which can significantly impact microbial communities in aquatic systems. While previous studies have investigated viruses in WWTP samples that have been specifically concentrated for viruses and filtered to exclude bacteria, little is known about viral communities associated with bacterial communities throughout wastewater treatment systems. Additionally, differences in viral composition between attached and suspended growth wastewater treatment bioprocesses are not well characterized. Here, shotgun metagenomics was used to analyse wastewater and biomass from transects through two full‐scale WWTPs for viral composition and associations with bacterial hosts. One WWTP used a suspended growth activated sludge bioreactor and the other used a biofilm reactor (trickling filter). Myoviridae, Podoviridae and Siphoviridae were the dominant viral families throughout both WWTPs, which are all from the order Caudovirales. Beta diversity analysis of viral sequences showed that samples clustered significantly both by plant and by specific sampling location. For each WWTP, the overall bacterial community structure was significantly different than community structure of bacterial taxa associated with viral sequences. These findings highlight viral community composition in transects through different WWTPs and provide context for dsDNA viral sequences in bacterial communities from these systems.

Microbes in indoor environments are constantly being exposed to antimicrobial surface finishes. Many are rendered non‐viable after spending extended periods of time under low‐moisture, low‐nutrient surface conditions, regardless of whether those surfaces have been amended with antimicrobial chemicals. However, some microorganisms remain viable even after prolonged exposure to these hostile conditions. Work with specific model pathogens makes it difficult to draw general conclusions about how chemical and physical properties of surfaces affect microbes. Here, we explore the survival of a synthetic community of non‐model microorganisms isolated from built environments following exposure to three chemically and physically distinct surface finishes. Our findings demonstrated the differences in bacterial survival associated with three chemically and physically distinct materials. Alkaline clay surfaces select for an alkaliphilic bacterium, Kocuria rosea, whereas acidic mold‐resistant paint favors Bacillus timonensis, a Gram‐negative spore‐forming bacterium that also survives on antimicrobial surfaces after 24 hours of exposure. Additionally, antibiotic‐resistant Pantoea allii did not exhibit prolonged retention on antimicrobial surfaces. Our controlled microcosm experiment integrates measurement of indoor chemistry and microbiology to elucidate the complex biochemical interactions that influence the indoor microbiome.

The decades-long global trend of urbanization has led to a population that spends increasing amounts of time indoors. Exposure to microbes in buildings, and specifically in dust, is thus also increasing, and has been linked to various health outcomes and to antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). These are most efficiently screened using DNA sequencing, but this method does not determine which microbes are viable, nor does it reveal whether their ARGs can actually disseminate to other microbes. We have thus performed the first study to: 1) examine the potential for ARG dissemination in indoor dust microbial communities, and 2) validate the presence of detected mobile ARGs in viable dust bacteria. Specifically, we integrated 166 dust metagenomes from 43 different buildings. Sequences were assembled, annotated, and screened for potential integrons, transposons, plasmids, and associated ARGs. The same dust samples were further investigated using cultivation and isolate genome and plasmid sequencing. Potential ARGs were detected in dust isolate genomes, and we confirmed their placement on mobile genetic elements using long-read sequencing. We found 183 ARGs, of which 52 were potentially mobile (associated with a putative plasmid, transposon or integron). One dust isolate related to Staphylococcus equorum proved to contain a plasmid carrying an ARG that was detected metagenomically and confirmed through whole genome and plasmid sequencing. This study thus highlights the power of combining cultivation with metagenomics to assess the risk of potentially mobile ARGs for public health.

Climate change is thought to have major effects on groundwater resources. There is however a limited knowledge of the impacts of past climate changes such as warm or glacial periods on groundwater although marine or glacial fluids may have circulated in basements during these periods. Geochemical investigations of groundwater at shallow depth (80–400 m) in the Armorican basement (western France) revealed three major phases of evolution: (1) Mio-Pliocene transgressions led to marine water introduction in the whole rock porosity through density and then diffusion processes, (2) intensive and rapid recharge after the glacial maximum down to several hundred meters depths, (3) a present-day regime of groundwater circulation limited to shallow depth. This work identifies important constraints regarding the mechanisms responsible for both marine and glacial fluid migrations and their preservation within a basement. It defines the first clear time scales of these processes and thus provides a unique case for understanding the effects of climate changes on hydrogeology in basements. It reveals that glacial water is supplied in significant amounts to deep aquifers even in permafrosted zones. It also emphasizes the vulnerability of modern groundwater hydrosystems to climate change as groundwater active aquifers is restricted to shallow depths.