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Removal efficacy of opportunistic pathogen gene markers in drinking water supply systems: an in situ and large-scale molecular investigation

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Abstract

The prevalence and interactions with biofilm and disinfectant of opportunistic pathogens in drinking water supply systems (DWSSs) have been extensively interpreted. In contrast, the large geographical distribution and in situ removal of opportunistic pathogens are overlooked aspects. Here, paired source and tap water samples of 36 parallel DWSSs across China were collected, with five common waterborne pathogens characterized by qPCR. From source to tap, the removal of bacterial biomass (16S rRNA gene copy number) was 1.10 log, and gene marker removal of five opportunistic pathogens ranged from 0.66 log to 2.27 log, with the order of Escherichia coli > Mycobacterium spp. > Clostridium perfringens > Bacillus cereus > Aeromonas hydrophila. Different with bacterial community, geographical location and source water types (river or reservoir) were not key contributor to variation of opportunistic pathogens. Gene marker removal efficacies of E. coli, Mycobacterium spp., and C. perfringens from source to tap were restricted to removal efficacy of overall bacterial biomass, while abundance of B. cereus in tap water linked to the input of B. cereus from source water. Although culture-dependent approach is important for pathogen enumeration in drinking water, qPCR-based molecular survey shows advantages of quantifiable high-throughput and easy operation, providing abundant and timely information on pathogen occurrence in water. This study provides the in situ, molecular-level evidence toward differential propagation features of multiple opportunistic pathogens in DWSSs and suggests the source protection and early warning of treatment-resistant pathogens.

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Availability of data and materials

The sequencing data have been deposited with links to BioProject accession number PRJNA551910 for tap water and PRJNA563354 for source water in the NCBI BioProject database.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81861138051, No. 31861143049) and Foundation of Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment, China (2018ZX07502001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Ziming Han, Junying Lu & Yu Zhang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Ziming Han, Yu Zhang & Min Yang

  3. Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Wei An & Min Yang

Authors
  1. Ziming Han
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  2. Junying Lu
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  3. Wei An
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  4. Yu Zhang
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  5. Min Yang
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Contributions

Ziming Han: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, and writing—original draft preparation. Junying Lu: methodology and formal analysis. Wei An: resources, funding acquisition, and writing—reviewing and editing. Yu Zhang: conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition, and writing—reviewing and editing. Min Yang: supervision, funding acquisition, and writing—reviewing and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yu Zhang or Min Yang.

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Han, ., Lu, J., An, W. et al. Removal efficacy of opportunistic pathogen gene markers in drinking water supply systems: an in situ and large-scale molecular investigation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 54153–54160 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15744-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15744-y

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