Betaproteobacteria are predominant in drinking water: are there reasons for concern?

Abstract

Betaproteobacteria include some of the most abundant and ubiquitous bacterial genera that can be found in drinking water, including mineral water. The combination of physiology and ecology traits place some Betaproteobacteria in the list of potential, yet sometimes neglected, opportunistic pathogens that can be transmitted by water or aqueous solutions. Indeed, some drinking water Betaproteobacteria with intrinsic and sometimes acquired antibiotic resistance, harboring virulence factors and often found in biofilm structures, can persist after water disinfection and reach the consumer. This literature review summarizes and discusses the current knowledge about the occurrence and implications of Betaproteobacteria in drinking water. Although the sparse knowledge on the ecology and physiology of Betaproteobacteria thriving in tap or bottled natural mineral/spring drinking water (DW) is an evidence of this review, it is demonstrated that DW holds a high diversity of Betaproteobacteria, whose presence may not be innocuous.Frequently belonging to genera also found in humans, DW Betaproteobacteria are ubiquitous in different habitats, have the potential to resist antibiotics either due to intrinsic or acquired mechanisms, and hold different virulence factors. The combination of these factors place DW Betaproteobacteria in the list of candidates of emerging opportunistic pathogens. Improved bacterial identification of clinical isolates associated with opportunistic infections and 2 additional genomic and physiological studies may contribute to elucidate the potential impact of these bacteria.

Decision-Making Tools to Manage the Microbiology of Drinking Water Distribution Systems

“…Also, in a freshwater reservoir, Betaproteobacteria seems to dominate and outgrow other bacteria when the concentration of inorganic or organic phosphorus increases and then to survive with phosphorus depleted conditions due to cytoplasmic phosphorus storage [52]. Recently, Ferro et al [53] published a critical review about Betaproteobacteria in drinking water, recommending to put Betaproteobacteria in DWDS among the potentially relevant safety biomarkers, supporting the findings from this work. The authors highlighted the importance of this group in drinking water because of its resistance to chlorine-based disinfection treatments because of its ability to form biofilms and to degrade chlorinated compounds [54].…”

“…The authors highlighted the importance of this group in drinking water because of its resistance to chlorine-based disinfection treatments because of its ability to form biofilms and to degrade chlorinated compounds [54]. This disinfection resilience is associated with multidrug resistance (such as antibiotics) and resistance to other stress situations, which, in turn, can increase gene transfer and recombination events between bacterial communities, favouring antimicrobial resistance and the survival of pathogenic species [53].…”

The Bacterial Community Diversity of Bathroom Hot Tap Water Was Significantly Lower Than That of Cold Tap and Shower Water

“…Mycobacteriaceae contains a single genus Mycobacterium which is an important drinking water opportunistic pathogen (Good, 1985;Marciano-Cabral et al, 2010;Lu et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2019;Zhang and Lu, 2021). For both cold and hot tap water, the relative abundance of Burkholderiaceae (one dominant family in drinking water and PPSs) (Zeng et al, 2013;Buse et al, 2014;Ferro et al, 2019;Vavourakis et al, 2020) and Xanthobacteraceae (associated with nitrogen fixation) (Oren, 2014) obviously dropped in the second draws (compared with the first draws) (Figure 3). By contrast, the relative abundance of Azospirillaceae (associated with nitrogen fixation) (Sridevi et al, 2012), Obscuribacterales_fa, Moraxellaceae (contains potentially opportunistic pathogens) (Pettersson et al, 1998;Inkinen et al, 2018), and Hyphomonadaceae (contains "strict aerobic and stalked and non-stalked species") (Abraham and Rohde, 2014) significantly increased in the second draws for both cold and hot tap water.…”

Mining Subsidence-Induced Microtopographic Effects Alter the Interaction of Soil Bacteria in the Sandy Pasture, China

“…The key species of the top slope molecular ecological network are mainly composed of the genus Rhizobiales (Proteobacteria), which can symbiotically with plants (Erlacher et al, 2015), and the inorganic chemical energy class β-Proteobacteria (Proteobacteria), which can oxidize ammonia (Ferro et al, 2019). The abundant Alfalfa on the top of the slope provides favorable conditions for the development of the genus Rhizobiales (Song et al, 2017), and the growth-promoting effect of Rhizobiales on plants provides more nutrients for other bacteria (Zhang Z.Q.…”