title: High prevalence of type 41 and high sequence diversity of partial hexon gene of human adenoviruses in municipal raw sewage and activated sludge.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was aimed to assess seasonal/geographical distribution and sequence diversity of partial hexon gene for human adenoviruses (HAdVs) within raw sewages (RS) and activated sludges (AS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Assessments were based on high-throughput sequencing (HTS) for polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified 128-bp partial hexon gene fragments and followed by principal coordinate analyses (PCoA) for revealed sequences. Sequencing results showed that the majority of sequences (>90%) for the RS or AS samples were identical to HAdV type 41 of species F, while rest of few sequences belonged to HAdV species-D and -C were only occurred rarely without significant seasonal/geographical variation. The partial hexon genes were highly diverse as many sequence types and operational taxonomic unit groups were noticed among the matched sequences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated that HAdV-41 was constantly appeared in the RS and AS samples from Taiwan throughout the year without significant seasonal or geographical variations; but, had high sequence diverse noticed for the 128-bp partial hexon gene fragments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High-throughput-sequencing results provided better insights of HAdV distribution and genetic diversity for raw sewage and AS samples allowing some probable biases for cloning-sequencing approach to be defeated and further providing public health awareness regarding viral-contaminated sewages or sludges.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: H-W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: L-Z
authors.initials: LZ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: M-H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Shih
mesh_terms: D000260:Adenoviruses, Human / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000821:virology*; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D012722:Sewage
keywords: genetic sequence diversity; high throughput sequencing; human adenovirus; partial hexon gene; principal coordinate analyses; seasonal/geographical variation