Bacterial and eukaryotic microbial communities in urban water systems profiled via Illumina MiSeq platform

Adeline Su Yien Ting, Muhammad Zarul Hanifah Md Zoqratt, Hock Siew Tan, Andreas Aditya Hermawan, Amin Talei, Soon Thiam Khu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Microbial communities from a lake and river flowing through a highly dense urbanized township in Malaysia were profiled by sequencing amplicons of the 16S V3–V4 and 18S V9 hypervariable rRNA gene regions via Illumina MiSeq. Results revealed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were the dominant prokaryotic phyla; whereas, eukaryotic communities were predominantly of the SAR clade and Opisthokonta. The abundance of Pseudomonas and Flavobacterium in all sites suggested the possible presence of pathogens in the urban water systems, supported by the most probable number (MPN) values of more than 1600 per 100 mL. Urbanization could have impacted the microbial communities as transient communities (clinical, water-borne and opportunistic pathogens) coexisted with common indigenous aquatic communities (Cyanobacteria). It was concluded that in urban water systems, microbial communities vary in their abundance of microbial phyla detected along the water systems. The influences of urban land use and anthropogenic activities influenced the physicochemical properties and the microbial dynamics in the water systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number40
Number of pages15
Journal3 Biotech
Volume11
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jan 2021

Keywords

  • 16S rRNA
  • 18S rRNA
  • Microbial community
  • Urban waters
  • Water quality

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