A biogeographic 16S rRNA survey of bacterial communities of ureolytic biomineralization from California public restrooms

Kahui Lim; Matthew Rolston; Samantha Barnum; Cara Wademan; Harold Leverenz

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0262425

A biogeographic 16S rRNA survey of bacterial communities of ureolytic biomineralization from California public restrooms

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 14;17(1):e0262425. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262425. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Kahui Lim¹, Matthew Rolston², Samantha Barnum³, Cara Wademan³, Harold Leverenz¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Davis, Davis, California, United States of America.
² Host Microbe Systems Biology Core Facility, Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of California at Davis, Davis, California, United States of America.
³ Real-time PCR Research & Diagnostics Core Facility, Department of Medicine & Epidemiology, University of California at Davis, Davis, California, United States of America.

Abstract

In this study, we examined the total bacterial community associated with ureolytic biomineralization from urine drainage systems. Biomineral samples were obtained from 11 California Department of Transportation public restrooms fitted with waterless, low-flow, or conventional urinals in 2019. Following high throughput 16S rRNA Illumina sequences processed using the DADA2 pipeline, the microbial diversity assessment of 169 biomineral and urine samples resulted in 3,869 reference sequences aggregated as 598 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Using PERMANOVA testing, we found strong, significant differences between biomineral samples grouped by intrasystem sampling location and urinal type. Biomineral microbial community profiles and alpha diversities differed significantly when controlling for sampling season. Observational statistics revealed that biomineral samples obtained from waterless urinals contained the largest ureC/16S gene copy ratios and were the least diverse urinal type in terms of Shannon indices. Waterless urinal biomineral samples were largely dominated by the Bacilli class (86.1%) compared to low-flow (41.3%) and conventional samples (20.5%), and had the fewest genera that account for less than 2.5% relative abundance per OTU. Our findings are useful for future microbial ecology studies of urine source-separation technologies, as we have established a comparative basis using a large sample size and study area.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bacteria / genetics
Bathroom Equipment / microbiology*
Biomineralization / genetics
California / epidemiology
DNA, Bacterial / genetics
Drainage, Sanitary / methods
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / methods
Humans
Microbiota / genetics*
Phylogeny
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
Sequence Analysis, DNA / methods
Toilet Facilities

Substances

DNA, Bacterial
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the California Department of Transportation under Agreement Number 65A0734. The grant was awarded to Harold Leverenz. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.