Viral composition and context in metagenomes from biofilm and suspended growth municipal wastewater treatment plants

Morgan L. Petrovich, Sarah Ben Maamar, Erica M. Hartmann, Brian T. Murphy, Rachel S. Poretsky, George F. Wells*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) contain high density and diversity of viruses which can significantly impact microbial communities in aquatic systems. While previous studies have investigated viruses in WWTP samples that have been specifically concentrated for viruses and filtered to exclude bacteria, little is known about viral communities associated with bacterial communities throughout wastewater treatment systems. Additionally, differences in viral composition between attached and suspended growth wastewater treatment bioprocesses are not well characterized. Here, shotgun metagenomics was used to analyse wastewater and biomass from transects through two full-scale WWTPs for viral composition and associations with bacterial hosts. One WWTP used a suspended growth activated sludge bioreactor and the other used a biofilm reactor (trickling filter). Myoviridae, Podoviridae and Siphoviridae were the dominant viral families throughout both WWTPs, which are all from the order Caudovirales. Beta diversity analysis of viral sequences showed that samples clustered significantly both by plant and by specific sampling location. For each WWTP, the overall bacterial community structure was significantly different than community structure of bacterial taxa associated with viral sequences. These findings highlight viral community composition in transects through different WWTPs and provide context for dsDNA viral sequences in bacterial communities from these systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1324-1336
Number of pages13
JournalMicrobial Biotechnology
Volume12
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2019

Funding

Funding Information This work was supported by the Chicago Biomedical Consortium with support from the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, as well as by startup funds from Northwestern University. This work was supported by the Chicago Biomedical Consortium with support from the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, as well as by startup funds from Northwestern University.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
  • Bioengineering
  • Biochemistry
  • Biotechnology

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