Metagenomics Reveals the Impact of Wastewater Treatment Plants on the Dispersal of Microorganisms and Genes in Aquatic Sediments.

ABSTRACT: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) release treated effluent containing mobile genetic elements (MGEs), antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and microorganisms into the environment, yet little is known about their influence on nearby microbial communities and the retention of these factors in receiving water bodies. Our research aimed to characterize the genes and organisms from two different WWTPs that discharge into Lake Michigan, as well as from surrounding lake sediments to determine the dispersal and fate of these factors with respect to distance from the effluent outfall. Shotgun metagenomics coupled to distance-decay analyses showed a higher abundance of genes identical to those in WWTP effluent genes in sediments closer to outfall sites than in sediments farther away, indicating the

SUBMITTER: Chu BTT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5812944 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature