A Metagenomic Investigation of Spatial and Temporal Changes in Sewage Microbiomes across a University Campus
Noah Fierer, Hannah Holland‐Moritz, Alexandra Alexiev, Harpreet Batther, Nicholas B. Dragone, Liam Friar, Matthew J. Gebert, Sarah Gering, Jessica B. Henley, Sierra Jech, Emily M. Kibby, Tina Melie, William B. Patterson, Eric Peterson, Kyle Schutz, Elías Stallard-Olivera, John Sterrett, Corinne Walsh, Cresten Mansfeldt
Abstract
Sewage systems harbor extensive microbial diversity, including microbes derived from both human and environmental sources. Studies of the sewage microbiome are useful for monitoring public health and the health of our infrastructure, but the sewage microbiome can be highly variable in ways that are often unresolved. We sequenced DNA recovered from wastewater samples collected over a 3-week period at 17 locations in a single sewer system to determine how these communities vary across time and space. Most of the wastewater bacteria, and the antibiotic resistance genes they harbor, were not derived from human feces, but human usage patterns did impact how the amounts and types of bacteria and bacterial genes we found in these systems varied over time. Likewise, the wastewater communities, including both bacteria and their viruses, varied depending on location within the sewage network, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in efforts to monitor and understand the sewage microbiome.