Shotgun sequencing

One virus that happens to be a major threat to the public health and that is global is human pathogens. Many techniques have been developed to detect human pathogens in waste water treatment plants and to see the risks that they may can cause to the environment. This study was to use sets that would be derived with high sequencing technique for a shotgun to see if any activated sludge, to detect human pathogens, etc. Each set of data was filtered and the DNA sequence was normalized to a certain number and had a length of 150-190 bp. Different databases were used and one of the ones that was used was the 16S rRNA gene; the results showed that nine bacterial pathogens had been detected, with an overall amount that was 0.06-3.20% in the 16S rRNA gene fingerprinting, and sludge was activated as well. Pathogen risks were present because the sludge and effluent were detected and both were high in abundance. There is a concern in human pathogens and it was demonstrated that the sequencing technique for the shotgun was high and was feasible for a detection to the environment of human bacterial pathogens. There are many ways to detect human pathogens in waste water treatments and shotgun sequencing is one of the ways that’s been known to detect them.

 

Figure 1: Shotgun sequencing in a WWTP.

References:

Cai, L. and Zhang, T. 2013. “Detecting Human Bacterial Pathogens in Wastewater Treatment Plants by a High-Throughput Shotgun Sequencing Technique.” Environmental Science & Technology 47 (10), pp 5433–5441

 

 

Hold the Press! Viral Water!
Effective Treatment Against Viruses in Wastewater Facilities
By: Kassandra Decker

Preparation of anaerobic digestion process utilizing glass tubes, primary sludge and waste activated sludge as an organic source with introduced virus treated with nitrogen gas to remove oxygen for incubation to mimic conditions of optimal growth for mesophilic and thermophilic microorganisms. Figure taken from Sassi et al 2017. 

The treatment of water in wastewater facilities is of public health concern due to several possible contaminations that  can occur with parasites and bacteria. Most recently, the emergence of the Ebola virus in the United States has yielded interest on viral survival during wastewater treatments. Thus, the treatment at mesophilic (20°C-45°C) and thermophilic (41°C-122°C) temperatures has become important in the elimination of different pathogens. Sassi and colleagues investigated the survival of poliovirus 1, murine norovirus, and adenovirus 4, animal viruses with similar characteristics to the Ebola virus, under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions during anaerobic digestion (Figure). The data analyzed indicated that under mesophilic conditions, the concentration of viruses present was low which ranged from 87.4% to 100% anaerobic digestion of the virus. In thermophilic conditions, the viral concentration was largely reduced past the limit of detection compared to the concentrations in mesophilic conditions. Knowing how to effectively treat reusable water for pathogens can help reduce the incidence of contamination during crop irrigation and other human applications.

Original Article:
Sassi HP, Ikner LA, Abd-Elmaksoud S, Gerba CP, and Pepper IL. (2017). Comparative survival of viruses during thermophilic  and mesophilic anaerobic digestion.  Sci of the Tot Env 615:15-19

New Microbial Community Catalogue!

By: Cesar Caballero

The Earth Microbiome Project, an initiative with a sole purpose that aims toward collecting natural samples and to analyze Earth’s microbial community, conducting an interesting research concerning Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity. Awareness of the importance of our microbial world here on Earth is growing more and more. Thanks to coordinated protocol along with new analytical methods concerning the microbial world, researchers at the Earth Microbiome Project are allowed the ability to explore these microbial patterns of community distribution. Comprised of about 100 studies, more than half yielded peer-reviewed publications, researchers from The Earth Microbiome Project now introduced the sampling and sequencing depth based on earlier efforts, significant analytical tools have now been developed, thus opening the door into broader research on distribution of the microbial community. The Earth Microbiome Project researchers, thanks to the use of sample collecting along with microbiome sequencing and metadata curation, researched and performed a globalized meta-analysis of archael/bacterial communities. With this research should come an even faster accumulation of microbiome/microbe data.

Figure 1. This figure represents environment type and provenance of samples.

Thompson, L. Sanders, J. McDonald, D. et al. (2017) A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity. Nature. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature24621

One way infants can help grownups

Immune thrombocytopenia is an autoimmune disease that causes a low platelet count in which antibodies bind with the antigens of the platelets in the blood.  While this disorder in of itself would not cause death, complication caused by it could lead to death.  This would normally be treated with Immunosuppression drugs, but a study conducted by the department of hematology in the Siping hospital of china might have another option.  This new treatment involved an intravenous infusion of mesenchymal stem cells derived from the umbilical cords from infants and mixed with saline infusion to insure delivery.  The treatment was implemented to 4 different patients and the time for a treatment response was about two weeks.  The stem cells were able to treat the disorder and for one patient, there was no signs of relapsed.  For the remaining 3 patients, there were signs of relapse within a 12 month period.  The patients that did relapse were given a second round of the treatment and they remained symptom free for more than ten months.  This article concluded that this could be a possible treatment for Immune thrombocytopenia, but more research would be needed for a large scale therapy.  

Figure 1: A chart explaining how the treatment affected the patients.  

Article Citation: Xiaouh, w., Xiaoguang, y., Wei, S., Jin, B., yawen S., Qiang, A. (2017). Intravenous infusion umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell in primary immune thrombocytopenia: a two year follow-up.  Experimental & Therapeutic medicin, 13(5), 2255-2258. 

Bacterial Gelatin

By: Graciela Hernandez




 
 Figure 1. Gel formation on sample waters shaken at 200rpm.

      Ever since the result of massive oil spills, bio-remediation has been an important topic of interest for conserving the natural water habitat. Bio-remediation can work by finding non-chemical solutions to absorb or disperse the contaminant. Radwan and colleagues (2017) noted that visco-elastic gels made up of organic solvents containing biodegrading functions and water have been forming in the Arabian Gulf. Their study conducted an experiment to find how the gels were forming. Samples of several water types were tested with 3g of crude oil shaken at 200rpm at 3℃ for 4 months.

      The results obtained showed random gel formation, could occur in any water type with oil present, but needed shaking to form. The bacterial communities found in the gels were extracted using cultural dependent and independent methods. The cultural dependent methods resulted in microbial sterility due to the chemicals found in the test. The cultural independent method could identify bacteria by expanding the DNA using the 16srDNA gene and comparing it to those found in a gene bank.  Overall the gels work by trapping the oil found in the water together and having microbial communities degrade it.

original article:

Radwan SA, Al-Mailem DM, Kansour MK (2017). Gelatinizing oil in water and its removal via bacteria inhabiting the gels. Nature.com/ Scientific Report. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14296-x.pdf