title: A comprehensive insight into bacterial virulence in drinking water using 454 pyrosequencing and Illumina high-throughput sequencing.
abstract: In order to comprehensively investigate bacterial virulence in drinking water, 454 pyrosequencing and Illumina high-throughput sequencing were used to detect potential pathogenic bacteria and virulence factors (VFs) in a full-scale drinking water treatment and distribution system. 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing revealed high bacterial diversity in the drinking water (441-586 operational taxonomic units). Bacterial diversity decreased after chlorine disinfection, but increased after pipeline distribution. α-Proteobacteria was the most dominant taxonomic class. Alignment against the established pathogen database showed that several types of putative pathogens were present in the drinking water and Pseudomonas aeruginosa had the highest abundance (over 11‰ of total sequencing reads). Many pathogens disappeared after chlorine disinfection, but P. aeruginosa and Leptospira interrogans were still detected in the tap water. High-throughput sequencing revealed prevalence of various pathogenicity islands and virulence proteins in the drinking water, and translocases, transposons, Clp proteases and flagellar motor switch proteins were the predominant VFs. Both diversity and abundance of the detectable VFs increased after the chlorination, and decreased after the pipeline distribution. This study indicates that joint use of 454 pyrosequencing and Illumina sequencing can comprehensively characterize environmental pathogenesis, and several types of putative pathogens and various VFs are prevalent in drinking water.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Kailong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: zhangxx@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xu-Xiang
authors.initials: XX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: hqren@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hongqiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ren
mesh_terms: D060766:Drinking Water / Q000382:microbiology*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D007921:Leptospira interrogans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000737:chemistry; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D018508:Water Purification
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D037521:Virulence Factors
keywords: Chlorine disinfection; Drinking water; Metagenomic analysis; Pathogenic bacteria; Pyrosequencing; Virulence factors