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DNA viruses from different stages of a wastewater treatment plant in southwest Ohio
Citation:
Ruth, N., N. Brinkman, M. Jahne, P. Chain, S. Keely, AND M. Shakya. DNA viruses from different stages of a wastewater treatment plant in southwest Ohio. Total Environment Microbiology. Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1(4):100031, (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.temicr.2025.100031
Impact/Purpose:
One major challenge for implementing alternative water reuse systems is effective and efficient monitoring of systems to ensure that treatment processes effectively remove contaminants. New microbial indicators are needed to monitor systems to ensure efficient removal of pathogens. Metagenomics can be used to screen the microbial population of wastewater and wastewater products to determine the abundant members, which can be quantified and evaluated to determine whether they can serve as indicators for pathogen reduction in various treatment scenarios and assess whether processes are performing as expected.
Description:
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) house diverse populations of microbial communities that are dynamic across treatment stages. Although viruses are relatively less studied compared to their bacterial counterparts, they are equally important players in WWTPs. In this study, we sampled influent, activated sludge, and effluent stages of a WWTP in southwest Ohio and sequenced their viral population using whole genome amplification (WGA) and shotgun sequencing methods. We recovered 1003 viral genomes, the majority of which were ssDNA viruses, not closely related to human gut or known terrestrial viruses. They formed distinct clusters representing novel species and phylogenetic groups compared to previously known viruses. Additionally, tracking viral abundance across treatment stages showed several that persisted across multiple treatment stages and a handful of which showed distinct changes in abundance across treatment stages, but none were statistically significant. A future study with more statistical power is needed to understand persistence and dynamics of virus populations in WWTPs.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: DNA viruses from different stages of a wastewater treatment plant in southwest Ohio