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Description of Drinking Water Bacterial Communities Using 16S rRNA Gene Sequence Analyses
Citation:
Humringhouse, B., R. P. REVETTA, R. Lamendella, D. Oerther, AND J. W. SANTO-DOMINGO. Description of Drinking Water Bacterial Communities Using 16S rRNA Gene Sequence Analyses. Presented at American Society for Microbiology 2008 General Meeting, Boston, MA, June 01 - 05, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
Poster Presentation
Description:
Descriptions of bacterial communities inhabiting water distribution systems (WDS) have mainly been accomplished using culture-based approaches. Due to the inherent selective nature of culture-based approaches, the majority of bacteria inhabiting WDS remain uncharacterized. The goal of this study was to compare bacterial community structures of drinking water samples gathered at different locations throughout a metropolitan area, using sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. A total of 2500 clones were analyzed throughout the course of this study. Sequence comparisons with existing databases revealed that sequences closely related to α-Proteobacteria and Mycobacterium sp. represented nearly 40% and 36% of the total clones examined, respectively. Other bacterial groups identified included members of the genera Legionella, Pseudomonas, and Agrobacterium. Samples collected from the same site showed similar community composition over time. Moreover, T-RFLP analysis of samples collected from different sites showed the presence of similar populations, further suggesting that some of these populations are relatively stable in this distribution system. However, using 97% as the operational taxonomic unit, rarefaction analysis and diversity indices suggested that more clones should be examined at some sampling sites within the distribution system in order yield a deeper representation of the inhabiting bacterial populations.