Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, QLD 4102, Australia.
Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; Centre for Microbiome Research, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Dec 1;798:149225. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149225. Epub 2021 Jul 22.
The premise plumbing portion of drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) has several characteristics that may favor microbial growth in the form of biofilms. These microbial communities are implicated as infectious sources for the spread of opportunistic waterborne pathogens by supporting their complex ecology and transmission through DWDS outlets to susceptible individuals. However, there is limited understanding of the drinking water biofilms in real premise plumbing networks due to challenges with accessibility. Using a combination of culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches, this study comprehensively characterized the premise plumbing microbiome of a 50-year-old university building, inclusive of water and biofilm samples. Microbial diversity in the water samples were more taxonomically diverse in comparison to the mature drinking water biofilms, which were dominated with biofilm-formers and opportunistic pathogens, such as Mycobacterium spp. A model opportunistic pathogen, Legionella spp., was only detectable in water samples using quantitative PCR but could not be detected in any of the drinking water biofilms using either qPCR or culture-dependent approaches, highlighting the limitations of detection methods in these environments. This study presents preliminary findings on the microbial dynamics and complexity in premise plumbing networks, which may support public health management and the development of strategies to eliminate microbial risks to human health.
饮用水分配系统（DWDS）的前提管道部分具有几个可能有利于微生物以生物膜形式生长的特征。这些微生物群落通过支持它们的复杂生态系统和通过 DWDS 出口传播到易感个体来传播机会性病原体，被认为是感染源。然而，由于难以进入，对于实际前提管道网络中的饮用水生物膜的理解有限。本研究使用依赖培养和非依赖培养的方法相结合，全面描述了一座拥有 50 年历史的大学建筑的前提管道微生物组，包括水和生物膜样本。与成熟的饮用水生物膜相比，水样中的微生物多样性在分类上更加多样化，而成熟的饮用水生物膜则以生物膜形成菌和机会性病原体为主，例如分枝杆菌属。一种模型机会性病原体军团菌只能通过定量 PCR 在水样中检测到，而在任何饮用水生物膜中都不能通过 qPCR 或依赖培养的方法检测到，这突出了这些环境中检测方法的局限性。本研究初步揭示了前提管道网络中微生物的动态和复杂性，这可能有助于公共卫生管理和消除微生物对人类健康风险的策略的制定。
