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A new coupon design for simultaneous analysis of in situ microbial biofilm formation and community structure in drinking water distribution systems

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology volume 87, pages 749–756 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

This study presents a new coupon sampling device that can be inserted directly into the pipes within water distribution systems (WDS), maintaining representative near wall pipe flow conditions and enabling simultaneous microscopy and DNA-based analysis of biofilms formed in situ. To evaluate this sampling device, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analyses were used to investigate changes in biofilms on replicate coupons within a non-sterile pilot-scale WDS. FISH analysis demonstrated increases in bacterial biofilm coverage of the coupon surface over time, while the DGGE analysis showed the development of increasingly complex biofilm communities, with time-specific clustering of these communities. This coupon design offers improvements over existing biofilm sampling devices in that it enables simultaneous quantitative and qualitative compositional characterization of biofilm assemblages formed within a WDS, while importantly maintaining fully representative near wall pipe flow conditions. Hence, it provides a practical approach that can be used to capture the interactions between biofilm formation and changing abiotic conditions, boundary shear stress, and turbulent driven exchange within WDS.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a European Union FP6 Marie-Curie Transfer of Knowledge grant “Microbiology of Urban Water Systems” (grant number 42444) awarded to CAB, AMO, and JBB. CAB and JBB would also like to acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for the provision of an Advanced Research Fellowship (EP/E053556/01) and Challenging Engineering award (EP/G029946/1), respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ChELSI Institute, Pennine Water Group, Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK

    Peter Deines, Raju Sekar & Catherine A. Biggs

  2. Pennine Water Group, Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK

    Peter Deines, Raju Sekar, P. Stewart Husband & Joby B. Boxall

  3. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

    Peter Deines, Raju Sekar & A. Mark Osborn

  4. Now at School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Peter Deines

Authors
  1. Peter Deines
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  2. Raju Sekar
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  3. P. Stewart Husband
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  4. Joby B. Boxall
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  5. A. Mark Osborn
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  6. Catherine A. Biggs
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Correspondence to Catherine A. Biggs.

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P.D. and R.S. made equal contributions to this research.

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Deines, P., Sekar, R., Husband, P.S. et al. A new coupon design for simultaneous analysis of in situ microbial biofilm formation and community structure in drinking water distribution systems. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 87, 749–756 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2510-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2510-x

Keywords

  • Biofilms
  • CARD-FISH
  • DGGE
  • Drinking water distribution systems
  • Sampling coupon