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Diversity, abundance, and possible sources of fecal bacteria in the Yangtze River

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

The fecal bacteria in natural waters may pose serious risks on human health. Although many source tracking methods have been developed and used to determine the possible sources of the fecal pollution, little is known about the overall diversity and abundance of fecal bacterial community in natural waters. In this study, a method based on fecal bacterial sequence library was introduced to evaluate the fecal bacterial profile in the Yangtze River (Nanjing section). Our results suggested that the Yangtze River water harbors diverse fecal bacteria. Fifty-eight fecal operational taxonomic units (97% identity level) were detected in the Yangtze River water samples and the relative abundance of fecal bacteria in these samples ranged from 0.1 to 8%. It was also found that the relative abundances of the fecal bacteria in locations near to the downstream of wastewater treatment plants were obviously higher than those in other locations. However, the high abundance of fecal bacteria could decrease to the normal level in 2~4 km in the river due to degradation or dilution, and the overall fecal bacteria level changed little when the Yangtze River flew through the Nanjing City. Moreover, the fecal bacteria in the Yangtze River water were found to be highly associated (Spearman rho = 0.804, P < 0.001) with the potential pathogenic bacteria. Collectively, the findings in this study reveal the diversity, abundance, and possible sources of fecal bacteria in the Yangtze River and advance our understandings of the fecal bacteria community in the natural waters.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Peng Shi for assisting in water sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Haohao Sun, Xiwei He, Lin Ye, Xu-Xiang Zhang, Bing Wu & Hongqiang Ren

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  1. Haohao Sun
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  2. Xiwei He
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  3. Lin Ye
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  4. Xu-Xiang Zhang
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  5. Bing Wu
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  6. Hongqiang Ren
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Correspondence to Lin Ye or Xu-Xiang Zhang.

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Funding

This study was funded by the China Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Sun, H., He, X., Ye, L. et al. Diversity, abundance, and possible sources of fecal bacteria in the Yangtze River. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101, 2143–2152 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7998-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7998-2

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