EAGER:COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Metagenomic Analysis to ensure water quality and safety

EAGER：合作研究：宏基因组分析确保水质和安全

• 批准号: 1742869
• 负责人: Anwarul Huq
• 金额: $ 3.16万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1742869&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; Metagenomic; Analysis

1742869/ 1742870Huq; LeddyWith increased water scarcity, it is critical that safe water supplies be maintained, including wastewater for environmental discharge or reuse. Currently microbial (bacterial and viral) water quality is measured using standard microbiological and biotechnological culture methods to establish safe water quality. This proposed EAGER is transformative as the study aims to explore the use of a newly developed detailed and sensitive metagenomic sequence analysis to understand and identify microbial communities for accurate determination of biological water quality in water, wastewater, biofilms, and water reuse systems.With the proposed metagenomic analysis system, microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, will be accurately identified to species and strains. Additionally, antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity properties are also identified to evaluate diversity and abundance of the genes and microorganisms in-situ. By assessing the microbial communities and comparing their composition, a better understanding of the microbial communities and their ecology is developed to provide improved methods for assessing microbial water quality for indirect potable reuse and direct potable reuse. Culture-dependent methods and indicator microorganism measurements have proven to be slow and biased because they do not represent all species, often not even the dominant species present during advanced water and wastewater treatment. Molecular techniques have provided insights into microbial community structure; however, these methods are seriously limited because they target single microorganisms that are often the less dominant species. Therefore, with metagenomic analysis using next generation sequencing, accurate resolution of the microbial communities and their diversity is achieved, resulting in significant benefits for environmental and public health applications. Metagenomic whole DNA sequencing involves shearing all DNA in a sample that is then sequenced by next generation sequencing. Next generation sequencing is non-discriminatory, identifying all organisms, even the underrepresented, while identifying functional and resistant genes, pathogenicity, and providing taxonomic structure based on phylogenetic trees, all in a single analysis and within approximately one day. Therefore, next generation sequencing provides a more complete identification, with greater resolution of the microbial community and its ecology. The results from this study have the potential of defining microbial communities in water systems at each step of the process and will transform the ability to understand and design better indicators, validate surrogates, and also define sustainable microbial communities beneficial for drinking water and water reuse. The long term societal impact will be paramount as the proposed project will yield a more defined microbial community structure for water quality and safe water supplies and will demonstrate the utility of this important, emerging approach for the water and water reuse industry. During the course of this study, a doctoral student will gain fundamental and applied knowledge in the area of bioinformatics and water reuse that encompasses advanced treatment technologies that are employed in water reuse. Student interns will have the opportunity to learn field sampling techniques. This study will establish a good foundation to achieve notable broader impacts for the environment.

1742869/1742870随着水资源日益短缺，至关重要的是要保持安全的水供应，包括废水的环境排放或再利用。目前，微生物（细菌和病毒）水质是使用标准的微生物和生物技术培养方法来测量的，以建立安全的水质。EAGER是一个革命性的研究，旨在探索使用新开发的详细和灵敏的宏基因组序列分析来了解和识别微生物群落，以准确确定水，废水，生物膜和水回用系统中的生物水质。通过拟议的宏基因组分析系统，微生物，包括细菌，病毒，真菌和寄生虫，将被准确地识别到物种和菌株。此外，还鉴定了抗生素抗性和致病性特性，以原位评估基因和微生物的多样性和丰度。通过评估微生物群落和比较它们的组成，更好地了解微生物群落及其生态，以提供改进的方法来评估间接饮用水回用和直接饮用水回用的微生物水质。依赖培养的方法和指示微生物测量已被证明是缓慢和有偏见的，因为它们不能代表所有物种，甚至不能代表先进的水和废水处理过程中存在的优势物种。分子生物学技术为微生物群落结构提供了新的视角;然而，这些方法受到了严重的限制，因为它们针对的是单一的微生物，而这些微生物往往是不太占优势的物种。因此，通过使用下一代测序的宏基因组分析，实现了对微生物群落及其多样性的准确解析，从而为环境和公共卫生应用带来了重大益处。宏基因组全DNA测序涉及剪切样品中的所有DNA，然后通过下一代测序对其进行测序。下一代测序是非歧视性的，可以识别所有生物体，即使是代表性不足的生物体，同时识别功能和抗性基因，致病性，并基于系统发育树提供分类结构，所有这些都在一次分析中，大约在一天内完成。因此，下一代测序提供了更完整的鉴定，对微生物群落及其生态具有更高的分辨率。这项研究的结果有可能在过程的每个步骤中定义水系统中的微生物群落，并将改变理解和设计更好的指标，验证替代物的能力，并定义有利于饮用水和水再利用的可持续微生物群落。长期的社会影响将是最重要的，因为拟议的项目将产生一个更明确的微生物群落结构的水质和安全的供水，并将证明这一重要的，新兴的水和水回用行业的方法的效用。在这项研究的过程中，博士生将获得生物信息学和水再利用领域的基础和应用知识，其中包括水再利用中采用的先进处理技术。实习生将有机会学习现场取样技术。这项研究将为实现更广泛的环境影响奠定良好的基础。