Seasonal variations of microbial community and antibiotic resistome in a suburb drinking water distribution system in a northern Chinese city

Antibiotic resistance genes(ARGs)are an emerging issue for drinkingwater safety.However,the seasonal variation of ARGs in drinking water distribution systems(DWDS)is still unclear.This work revealed the tempo-spatial changes of microbial community,ARGs,mobile genetic elements(MGEs)co-occurring with ARGs,ARG hosts in DWDS bulk water by means of metagenome assembly.The microbial community and antibiotic resistome varied with sampling season and site.Temperature,ammonia,chlorite and total plate count(TPC)drove the variations of microbial community structure.Moreover,environmental parameters(total organic carbon(TOC),chlorite,TPC and hardness)shifted antibiotic resistome.ARGs and MGEs co-occurring with ARGs showed higher relative abundance in summer and autumn,which might be attributed to detached pipe biofilm.In particular,ARG-bacitracin and plasmid were the predominant ARG and MGE,respectively.ARG hosts changed with season and site and were more diverse in summer and autumn.In winter and spring,Limnohabitans and Mycobacterium were the major ARG hosts as well as the dominant genera in microbial community.In addition,in summer and autumn,high relative abundance of Achromobacter and Stenotrophomonas were the hosts harboring many kinds of ARGs and MGEs at site in a residential zone(0.4 km from the water treatment plant).Compared with MGEs,microbial community had a greater contribution to the variation of antibiotic resistome.This work gives new insights into the dynamics of ARGs in full-scale DWDS and the underlying factors.

Molecular ecological networks reveal the spatial-temporal variation of microbial communities in drinking water distribution systems

Microbial activity and regrowth in drinking water distribution systems is a major concern for water service companies.However,previous studies have focused on the microbial composition and diversity of the drinkingwater distribution systems(DWDSs),with little discussion on microbial molecular ecological networks(MENs)in different water supply networks.MEN analysis explores the potentialmicrobial interaction and the impact of environmental stress,to explain the characteristics of microbial community structures.In this study,the random matrix theory-based network analysis was employed to investigate the impact of seasonal variation including water source switching on the networks of three DWDSs that used different disinfection methods.The results showed that microbial interaction varied slightly with the seasons but was significantly influenced by different DWDSs.Proteobacteria,identified as key species,play an important role in the network.Combined UV-chlorine disinfection can effectively reduce the size and complexity of the network compared to chlorine disinfection alone,ignoring seasonal variations,which may affect microbial activity or control microbial regrowth in DWDSs.This study provides new insights for analyzing the dynamics of microbial interactions in DWDSs.