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Metagenomic Analysis of Microbial Communities in Indoor Water Cultures: a Case Study in an Educational Building

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Abstract

Indoor air quality can vary significantly from place to place, and it has been shown to play a critical role in respiratory diseases. This study aims to investigate the microbial communities present in indoor water cultures using metagenomic analysis. After 45 days of culturing, we collected organisms from three water samples: sterilized laboratory tap water (Al02), non-sterilized laboratory tap water (Al03), and water from the Ohio River near the campus (Al04). We isolated and purified the genomic DNA and then constructed genomic DNA libraries. Subsequently, we sequenced and analyzed the genomic DNA fragments within these libraries. The study identified a total of 1,123,463 open reading frames (ORFs). Among these ORFs, 4.76% were shared between Al02 and Al03, 3.09% were shared between Al03 and Al04, and 1.67% were shared between Al02 and Al04. The ORFs were mainly associated with metabolism, environmental information processing, and genetic information processing. Enzyme analysis revealed that the identified ORFs were mainly associated with glycosyl transferases, glycoside hydrolases, carbohydrate-binding molecules, carbohydrate esterases, and auxiliary activities. The most abundant phylum identified was Proteobacteria, and Chlorophyta was also a significant phylum in all three samples.

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Data Availability

The raw data for this study, including the metagenomic sequencing reads and associated metadata, the annotated open reading frames, and enzyme analysis results, are available upon request from the corresponding author, following the data-sharing policy of our institution.

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Funding

This study is supported by the 2018 seed grant from the Environmental Science and Design Research Institute, Kent State University.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University at East Liverpool, 400 E 4th St, East Liverpool, OH, 43920, USA

    Qunxing Ding & Haiyan Zhu

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  1. Qunxing Ding
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  2. Haiyan Zhu
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Correspondence to Qunxing Ding.

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Ding, Q., Zhu, H. Metagenomic Analysis of Microbial Communities in Indoor Water Cultures: a Case Study in an Educational Building. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 549 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06580-6

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