title: Characterization of the relative importance of human- and infrastructure-associated bacteria in grey water: a case study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Development of efficacious grey water (GW) treatment systems would benefit from detailed knowledge of the bacterial composition of GW. Thus, the aim of this study was to characterize the bacterial composition from (i) various points throughout a GW recycling system that collects shower and sink handwash (SH) water into an equalization tank (ET) prior to treatment and (ii) laundry (LA) water effluent of a commercial-scale washer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Bacterial composition was analysed by high-throughput pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. LA was dominated by skin-associated bacteria, with Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Propionibacterium and Lactobacillus collectively accounting for nearly 50% of the total sequences. SH contained a more evenly distributed community than LA, with some overlap (e.g. Propionibacterium), but also contained distinct genera common to wastewater infrastructure (e.g. Zoogloea). The ET contained many of these same wastewater infrastructure-associated bacteria, but was dominated by genera adapted for anaerobic conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data indicate that a relatively consistent set of skin-associated genera are the dominant human-associated bacteria in GW, but infrastructure-associated bacteria from the GW collection system and ET used for transient storage will be the most common bacteria entering GW treatment and reuse systems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study is the first to use high-throughput sequencing to identify the bacterial composition of various GW sources.
authors.affiliation: National Exposure Research Laboratory, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, USA.|McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: S P
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5343-3649
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Keely
authors.affiliation: National Exposure Research Laboratory, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, USA.|McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Brinkman
authors.affiliation: National Exposure Research Laboratory, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, USA.|Department of Energy, Environmental, Biological & Medical Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy, Environmental, Biological & Medical Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wendell
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ekeren
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: De Long
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharvelle
authors.affiliation: National Exposure Research Laboratory, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Garland
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology; D062065:Wastewater / Q000382:microbiology*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000295:instrumentation; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: D062065:Wastewater
keywords: bacteria; bioinformatics; grey water; infrastructure; metagenomics; water quality; water reuse