You are here:
Molecular Survey of Concrete Sewer Biofilm Microbial Communities
Citation:
SANTO-DOMINGO, J. W., R. P. REVETTA, B. Iker, V. GOMEZ-ALVAREZ, J. Garcia, J. Sullivan, AND J. Weast. Molecular Survey of Concrete Sewer Biofilm Microbial Communities . Biofouling. Taylor & Francis Group, London, Uk, 27(9):993-1001, (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Although bacteria are implicated in deteriorating concrete structures, there is very little information on the composition of concrete microbial communities. To this end, we studied different concrete biofilms by performing sequence analysis of 16S rDNA concrete clone libraries. Additionally, group-specific 16S rDNA and function-specific PCR assays were used to further study the microbial composition of concrete biofilms. Eighteen samples were collected from concrete surfaces of manholes, combined sewer overflow, and top (crown) and bottom sections of a corroded sewer pipe. A total of 2457 clones were analyzed in this study, representing 655, 456, 178, and 207 operational taxonomic units for each of the aforementioned sample types (i.e., at 98% identity). In general, Protoeobacteria vastly dominated concrete biofilms with alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-like members representing on average 15%, 22%, 11%, and 4% of the clone libraries. Beta-Proteobacteria (47%) sequences were more abundant in the pipe crown clones than any of the other concrete surfaces. Sequences for bacterial genera implicated in concrete corrosion were found in the clone libraries. Only four sequences were shared among the different clone libraries, suggesting that these communities are very diverse and differ in overall composition of most abundant members. Archaea, fungi, methanotrophs, denitrifiers, sulfate reducers, sulfate oxidizers, ammonia oxidizers, Geobacter spp and Shewanella spp were detected, further confirming that concrete biofilm microbial communities are far more complex than previously reported.
