State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing, 210023, China.
Environmental Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, SAR, China.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2018 Mar;102(5):2455-2464. doi: 10.1007/s00253-018-8796-9. Epub 2018 Feb 2.
To comprehensively understand the profile of free-living bacteria and potential bacterial pathogens in sewage treatment plants (STPs), this study applied high-throughput sequencing-based metagenomics approaches to investigate the effects of activated sludge (AS) treatment process and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection on the community of bacterial pathogens in two full-scale STPs. A total of 23 bacterial genera were identified as free-living bacteria, and 243 species/OTU were identified as potential bacterial pathogens, 6 of which were confidently detected in the STPs (with the total abundances ranging from 0.02 to 14.19%). Both diversity and relative abundance of the detected bacterial pathogens decreased obviously after AS treatment process (p < 0.05), and increased slightly after sedimentation (p < 0.05). UV disinfection shows no obvious effects on the total relative abundance of the free-living pathogenic bacteria in sewage. Although large amounts of the particle-bound pathogens were eliminated through the sewage treatment process, the STPs could not effectively remove the free-living bacterial pathogens, and some pathogenic bacteria (e.g., Pseudomonas aeruginosa) present in the effluent had higher relative abundance after UV disinfection. Overall, the results extend our knowledge regarding the community of potential pathogens (especially free-living pathogens) in STPs.
为了全面了解污水处理厂（STP）中自由生活细菌和潜在细菌病原体的特征，本研究应用基于高通量测序的宏基因组学方法，调查了活性污泥（AS）处理工艺和紫外线（UV）消毒对两个全规模 STP 中细菌病原体群落的影响。共鉴定出 23 个细菌属为自由生活细菌，243 个种/OTU 被鉴定为潜在的细菌病原体，其中 6 种在 STP 中被可靠地检测到（总丰度范围为 0.02 至 14.19%）。经过 AS 处理过程后，检测到的细菌病原体的多样性和相对丰度明显下降（p<0.05），经过沉淀后略有增加（p<0.05）。UV 消毒对污水中自由生活致病性细菌的总相对丰度没有明显影响。尽管大量的颗粒结合病原体通过污水处理过程被去除，但 STP 无法有效去除自由生活的细菌病原体，一些病原体（如铜绿假单胞菌）在紫外线消毒后在流出物中的相对丰度更高。总的来说，这些结果扩展了我们对 STP 中潜在病原体（特别是自由生活病原体）群落的认识。
