Patterns of protist diversity associated with raw sewage in New York City

Protists are ubiquitous components of terrestrial and aquatic environments, as well as animal and human microbiomes. Despite this, little is known about protists in urban environments. The ~7400-mile sewer system of New York City (NYC) collects human waste from ~8 million human inhabitants as well a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The ISME Journal 2019-11, Vol.13 (11), p.2750-2763
Main Authors: Maritz, Julia M, Ten Eyck, Theresa A, Elizabeth Alter, S, Carlton, Jane M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Annual variations
Aquatic environment
Biodiversity
Communities
Eukaryota - classification
Eukaryota - genetics
Eukaryota - isolation & purification
Feces - parasitology
Groundwater
Groundwater runoff
Human wastes
Humans
Metagenome
Microbial activity
Microbiomes
Microorganisms
Network analysis
New York City
Parasites
Raw sewage
RNA, Ribosomal, 18S - genetics
rRNA 18S
Runoff
Sequences
Sewage
Sewage - parasitology
Sewage disposal
Sewer systems
Soil - parasitology
Stormwater
Terrestrial environments
Urban environments
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Summary:Protists are ubiquitous components of terrestrial and aquatic environments, as well as animal and human microbiomes. Despite this, little is known about protists in urban environments. The ~7400-mile sewer system of New York City (NYC) collects human waste from ~8 million human inhabitants as well as from animals, street runoff, and groundwater, providing an ideal system to study these microbes. We used 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing and shotgun metagenomic sequencing to profile raw sewage microbial communities. Raw sewage samples were collected over a 12-month period from 14 treatment plants of the five NYC boroughs, and compared with samples from other environments including soil, stormwater, and sediment. Sewage contained a diverse protist community dominated by free-living clades, and communities were highly differentiated across environments. Seasonal differences in protist composition were observed; however, network analysis and functional profiling demonstrated that sewage communities were robust and functionally consistent. Protists typically associated with human and animal guts or feces were frequently detected. Abundance of these parasites varied significantly both spatially and temporally, suggesting that spikes could reflect trends in the source population. This underscores sewage as a valuable model system for monitoring patterns in urban microbes and provides a baseline protist metagenome of NYC.
ISSN:1751-7362
1751-7370
DOI:10.1038/s41396-019-0467-z