Metagenomic Profiling of Microbial Pathogens in the Little Bighorn River, Montana

Steve Hamner, Bonnie L. Brown, Nur A. Hasan, Michael J. Franklin, John Doyle, Margaret J. Eggers, Rita R. Colwell and Timothy E. Ford
Additional contact information
Steve Hamner: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health & Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA 2 Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
Bonnie L. Brown: Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
Nur A. Hasan: CosmosID Inc., 1600 East Gude Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, USA
Michael J. Franklin: Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
John Doyle: Crow Water Quality Project, Crow Agency, Little Big Horn College, MT 59022, USA
Margaret J. Eggers: Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
Rita R. Colwell: CosmosID Inc., 1600 East Gude Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, USA
Timothy E. Ford: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health & Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA 2 Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: The Little Bighorn River is the primary source of water for water treatment plants serving the local Crow Agency population, and has special significance in the spiritual and ceremonial life of the Crow tribe. Unfortunately, the watershed suffers from impaired water quality, with high counts of fecal coliform bacteria routinely measured during run-off events. A metagenomic analysis was carried out to identify potential pathogens in the river water. The Oxford Nanopore MinION platform was used to sequence DNA in near real time to identify both uncultured and a coliform-enriched culture of microbes collected from a popular summer swimming area of the Little Bighorn River. Sequences were analyzed using CosmosID bioinformatics and, in agreement with previous studies, enterohemorrhagic and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and other E. coli pathotypes were identified. Noteworthy was detection and identification of enteroaggregative E. coli O104:H4 and Vibrio cholerae serotype O1 El Tor, however, cholera toxin genes were not identified. Other pathogenic microbes, as well as virulence genes and antimicrobial resistance markers, were also identified and characterized by metagenomic analyses. It is concluded that metagenomics provides a useful and potentially routine tool for identifying in an in-depth manner microbial contamination of waterways and, thereby, protecting public health.

Keywords: metagenomics; pathogen detection; waterborne disease (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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