Detection of Pools of Bacteria with Public Health Importance in Wastewater Effluent from a Municipality in South Africa Using Next Generation Sequencing and Metagenomics Analysis
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Description
Wastewater effluents are always accompanied with possibilities for human
health risks as diverse pathogenic microorganisms are harboured in them,
especially if untreated or poorly treated. They allow the release of pathogens
into the environment and these may find its way into food cycle. This paper
reports the findings of our research work that focused on the characterization
of microorganisms from a municipal final wastewater effluent that receives
bulk of its spent water from a research farm. High throughput sequencing
using Illumina MiSeq apparatus and metagenomics analysis showed a high
abundance of microbial genes, which was dominated by Bacteria (99.88%),
but also contained Archaea (0.07%) and Viruses (0.05%). Most prominent in
the bacterial group is the Proteobacteria (86.6%), which is a major phylum
containing wide variety of pathogens, such as Escherichia, Salmonella, Vibrio,
Helicobacter, etc. Further analysis showed that the Genus Thauera occurred
in largest amounts across all 6 data sets, while Thiomonas and Bacteroides
propionicifaciens also made significant appearances. The presence of some
of the detected bacteria like Corynebacterium crenatum showed degradation
and/or fermentation in the effluent, which was evidenced by fouling during
sampling. Notable pathogens classified with critical criteria by World Health
Organization (WHO) for research and development
including Acinetobacter sp., Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas sp. in the
effluent were being released to the environment. Our results suggest a
potential influence of wastewater effluent on microbial community structure of
the receiving water bodies, the environment as well as possible effects on the individuals exposed to the effluents. The evidences from the results in this
study suggest an imminent public health problem that may become sporadic if
the discharged effluent is not properly treated. This situation is also a potential
contributor of antimicrobial resistance genes to the natural environments.
Keywords
QA Mathematics, QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science