Rosales, E., Del Olmo, G., Calero Preciado, C. et al. (1 more author) (2020) Phosphate dosing in drinking water distribution systems promotes changes in biofilm structure and functional genetic diversity. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11. 599091. ISSN 1664-302X
Abstract
Water utilities treat drinking water by adding phosphate to prevent metal dissolution from water pipe work systems and particularly lead poisoning. Phosphate can be a limiting nutrient for microbial biofilms in DWDS, yet its effects on these microbial consortia are not well understood. This research presents results from phosphate dosing experiments using a real scale chlorinated DWDS, comparing standard phosphate concentrations of United Kingdom drinking water (1 mgP/L) with a double dose (2 mgP/L) commonly used in plumbosolvency treatment. Biofilm development during phosphate treatment experiments was monitored using a holistic approach by combining metagenomics analysis, flow cytometry and SEM characterisation. The increase of phosphate levels in drinking water, reduced biofilm cell numbers and promoted the presence of poorly distributed biofilms on inner pipe surfaces. Metagenomics analysis using genetic markers (16S rRNA and ITS2) showed that phosphate influenced biofilm community structure, particularly fungal composition. Whole metagenome sequencing showed that phosphate enrichment favoured the presence of sequencing reads associated to ATPases, ion transporters and DNA-interacting proteins, whilst reads associated to nitrogen metabolism were predominant in control samples. This research brings new knowledge regarding the influence of phosphate treatment on the composition and structure of biofilms within DWDS, and the implications that this might have for the management of these systems.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 Rosales, Del Olmo, Calero Preciado and Douterelo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
Keywords: | biofilms; phosphate; drinking water; distribution networks; whole metagenomics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Civil and Structural Engineering (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL EP/N02950X/1 ROYAL SOCIETY RG160654 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2021 12:29 |
Last Modified: | 09 Feb 2021 12:29 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media SA |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/fmicb.2020.599091 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:169996 |