Analysis of interdomain taxonomic patterns in urban street mats

Abstract

Summary Streets are constantly crossed by billions of vehicles and pedestrians. Their gutters, which convey stormwater and contribute to waste management, and are important for human health and well‐being, probably play a number of ecological roles. Street surfaces may also represent an important part of city surface areas. To better characterize the ecology of this yet poorly explored compartment, we used filtration and DNA metabarcoding to address microbial community composition and assembly across the city of Paris, France. Diverse bacterial and eukaryotic taxonomic groups were identified, including members involved in key biogeochemical processes, along with a number of parasites and putative pathogens of human, animals and plants. We showed that the beta diversity patterns between bacterial and eukaryotic communities were correlated, suggesting interdomain associations. Beta diversity analyses revealed the significance of biotic factors (cohesion metrics) in shaping gutter microbial community assembly and, to a lesser extent, the contribution of abiotic factors (pH and conductivity). Co‐occurrences analysis confirmed contrasting non‐random patterns both within and between domains of life, specifically when comparing diatoms and fungi. Our results highlight microbial coexistence patterns in streets and reinforce the need to further explore biodiversity in urban ground transportation infrastructures.

Succession of the microbiota in the gut of reproductives of Macrotermes subhyalinus (Termitidae) at colony foundation gives insights into symbionts transmission

“…Subsequently, the 16S rRNA gene data were analyzed with mothur version 1.39.5 (Schloss et al, 2009), as described in Hervé and Lopez (2020). Briefly, the 16S rRNA gene reads were denoised by removing any reads having ambiguous bases, homopolymers longer than 8 bp, and having a length inferior to 280 bp or superior to 320 bp.…”

Microbial retention and resistances in stormwater quality improvement devices treating road runoff

“…Due to the heavy pollution and harsh conditions, traffic areas and their runoff can be classified as an extreme environment. Early research looked mainly at microbial communities found in sediments of infiltration basins (17), on the effect of de-icing salts (18,19), the biofilm of road gutters (20), or on the denitrification potential of road runoff receiving biofilters (21). More comprehensive analysis on the microbiology of road runoff are missing and most of the microbes and their community functioning in this polluted environment remain unknown, despite we can assume that they will be of relevance for the receiving water bodies (groundwater and surface waters) (22,23).…”