Compositional and temporal stability of fecal taxon libraries for use with SourceTracker in sub-tropical catchments

Christian O'Dea; Qian Zhang; Christopher Staley; Nicole Masters; Anna Kuballa; Paul Fisher; Cameron Veal; Helen Stratton; Michael J Sadowsky; Warish Ahmed; Mohammad Katouli

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2019.114967

Compositional and temporal stability of fecal taxon libraries for use with SourceTracker in sub-tropical catchments

Water Res. 2019 Nov 15:165:114967. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.114967. Epub 2019 Aug 13.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Genecology Research Centre, School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, 4558, Australia. Electronic address: codea@usc.edu.au.
² The Biotechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, MN, 55108, USA. Electronic address: zhangq58@umn.edu.
³ The Biotechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, MN, 55108, USA; Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota, MN, 55455, USA. Electronic address: cmstaley@umn.edu.
⁴ Genecology Research Centre, School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, 4558, Australia. Electronic address: nmasters@usc.edu.au.
⁵ Genecology Research Centre, School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, 4558, Australia. Electronic address: akuballa@usc.edu.au.
⁶ Seqwater, 117 Brisbane Street, Ipswich, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: paul.fisher@seqwater.com.au.
⁷ Seqwater, 117 Brisbane Street, Ipswich, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: Cameron.veal@seqwater.com.au.
⁸ School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: h.stratton@griffith.edu.au.
⁹ The Biotechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, MN, 55108, USA; Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota, MN, 55108, USA; Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, MN, 55108, USA. Electronic address: sadowsky@umn.edu.
¹⁰ CSIRO Land and Water, Ecosciences Precinct, 41 Boggo Road, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: warish.ahmed@csiro.au.
¹¹ Genecology Research Centre, School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, 4558, Australia. Electronic address: mkatouli@usc.edu.au.

PMID: 31430652
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.114967

Abstract

Characterization of microbial communities using high-throughput amplicon sequencing is an emerging approach for microbial source tracking of fecal pollution. This study used SourceTracker software to examine temporal and geographical variability of fecal bacterial community profiles to identify pollutant sources in three freshwater catchments in sub-tropical Australia. Fecal bacterial communities from 10 animal species, humans, and composite wastewater samples from six sewage treatment plants were characterized and compared to freshwater samples using Illumina amplicon sequencing of the V5-V6 regions of the 16S rRNA gene. Source contributions were calculated in SourceTracker using new fecal taxon libraries as well as previously generated libraries to determine the effects of geographic and temporal variability on source assignments. SourceTracker determined 16S rRNA bacterial communites within freshwater samples, shared taxonomic similarities to that of wastewater at low levels (typically <3%). SourceTraker also predicted occasional fecal detection of deer and flying fox sources in the water samples. No significant differences in source contributions were observed within sequences from current and previously characterized fecal samples (P ≥ 0.107). However, significant differences were observed between previously characterized and newly characterized source communities (ANOSIM P ≤ 0.001), which shared <15% community composition. Results suggest temporal instability of fecal taxon libraries among tested sources and highlight continual evaluation of community-based MST using confirmatory qPCR analyses of marker genes.

Keywords: 16S rRNA; Amplicon sequencing; Microbial source tracking; SourceTracker; Wastewater.

MeSH terms

Animals
Australia
Environmental Monitoring
Feces
Humans
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Water Microbiology*
Water Pollution*

Substances

RNA, Ribosomal, 16S