Biofilm bacterial communities in urban drinking water distribution systems transporting waters with different purification strategies

Abstract

Biofilm formation in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) has many adverse consequences. Knowledge of microbial community structure of DWDS biofilm can aid in the design of an effective control strategy. However, biofilm bacterial community in real DWDS and the impact of drinking water purification strategy remain unclear. The present study investigated the composition and diversity of biofilm bacterial community in real DWDSs transporting waters with different purification strategies (conventional treatment and integrated treatment). High-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing analysis illustrated a large shift in the diversity and structure of biofilm bacterial community in real DWDS. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Nitrospirae, and Cyanobacteria were the major components of biofilm bacterial community. Proteobacteria (mainly Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria) predominated in each DWDS biofilm, but the compositions of the dominant proteobacterial classes and genera and their proportions varied among biofilm samples. Drinking water purification strategy could shape DWDS biofilm bacterial community. Moreover, Pearson's correlation analysis indicated that Actinobacteria was positively correlated with the levels of total alkalinity and dissolved organic carbon in tap water, while Firmicutes had a significant positive correlation with nitrite nitrogen.

Distribution of sediment bacterial and archaeal communities in plateau freshwater lakes

“…The recently developed Illumina MiSeq platform can yield more detailed information of microbial community with greater throughput but less cost (Caporaso et al 2012;Nelson et al 2014). Illumina-based sequencing has found applications in characterizing the bacterial community in various natural and man-made environments, such as drinking water biofilter (Liao et al 2014), biofilm on drinking water distribution pipe (Wu et al 2014), anaerobic digestion sludge (Yang et al 2014), tropical rainforest leaf litter , river water (Staley et al 2013), soil (Rubin et al 2013), and mangrove wetland sediment (Jiang et al 2013). In addition, Illumina-based sequencing has also had several applications to characterize archaeal community in natural and man-made environments, such as fluid and sediment at a shallow marine hydrothermal site (Lentini et al 2014), biogas-producing and phenol-degrading bioreactor (Ju and Zhang 2014), and reservoir sediment (Zhang and Huang 2013).…”

Influence of substrate type on microbial community structure in vertical-flow constructed wetland treating polluted river water

“…Due to its relatively low costs and great throughput, Illumina sequencing has been applied to profile microbial communities in various natural and man-made ecosystems Shi et al 2014;Sun et al 2015;Wu et al 2015;Yang et al 2014;Zhang et al 2015). However, information on highthroughput sequencing of microbial assemblage in CW treating surface water is still very limited (Ligi et al 2014).…”

Identification and tracking of microorganisms from the biofilms of container walls used for water storage: Case of rural communities in Burkina Faso

“…Biofilm formation during water storage in this study is related to temperature, pH, turbidity, concentration of organic nutrients and indigenous microorganism's community of the stored water. Indeed, biofilm formation in water distribution systems depends on a variety of factors including the physico-chemical properties of water, the composition of biofilms, factors governing their formation and the effect and significance of these biofilms (Wu et al, 2015).…”

“…This is due to the original presence of indicator microorganisms in the raw waters (from well and drilling). The survival and regrowth of indicator microorganisms during biofilm formation is due to the occurrence of indigenous microorganism's community in the raw waters (Wu et al, 2015). As total coliform and E. coli were constantly present in raw waters, they were also found in stored waters in the different containers.…”