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Metagenomic Sequencing Revealed the Potential Pathogenic Threats of Banknotes.

ABSTRACT: Banknotes have long been suspected to be biologically "dirty" due to their frequent human contact, which may transmit human microbial pathogens. Still, it is an unsettled issue whether the microbes on banknotes pose a real threat to human health. In several previous studies, metagenomic sequencing was used to reveal the diversities of microbes on banknotes but live microorganism culture and functional verification were lacking. In this study, we collected banknotes of RMB in China as well as dollar bills in the United States and analyzed the microbial biodiversity and drug resistance genes carried by the identified microbes by metagenomic sequencing and in vitro culture methods. We identified eight major genera of drug-resistant bacteria through screening of 30 antibiotics, and the blood agar plate culture uncovered six pathogenic fungal species. Numerous phage and six dangerous viral sequences were also found. These results should substantiate our concern about the potential risk of banknotes to human health.

SUBMITTER: Lin J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7876676 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Metagenomic Sequencing Revealed the Potential Pathogenic Threats of Banknotes.

Lin Jun J Jiang Wenqian W Shi Yang Y Cai Weiwen W

ACS omega 20210127 5

Banknotes have long been suspected to be biologically "dirty" due to their frequent human contact, which may transmit human microbial pathogens. Still, it is an unsettled issue whether the microbes on banknotes pose a real threat to human health. In several previous studies, metagenomic sequencing was used to reveal the diversities of microbes on banknotes but live microorganism culture and functional verification were lacking. In this study, we collected banknotes of RMB in China as well as dol ...[more]

PMID: 33585735

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Project description:Human pathogens can survive and grow in hot springs. For water quality assessment, Escherichia coli or Enterococci are the main thermotolerant enteric bacteria commonly used to estimate the load of pathogenic bacteria in water. However, most of the environmental bacteria are unculturable thus culture methods may cause bias in detection of most pathogens. Illumina sequencing can provide a more comprehensive and accurate insight into environmental bacterial pathogens, which can be used to develop better risk assessment methods and promote public health awareness. In this study, high-throughput Illumina sequencing was used to identify bacterial pathogens from five hot springs; Maiwooi, Akwar, Garbanabra, Elegedi and Gelti, in Eritrea. Water samples were collected from the five hot springs. Total community DNA was extracted from samples using the phenol-chloroform method. The 16S rRNA gene variable region (V4-V7) of the extracted DNA was amplified and library construction done according to Illumina sequencing protocol. The sequence reads (length >200 bp) from Illumina sequencing libraries ranged from 22,091 sequences in the wet sediment sample from Garbanabra to 155,789 sequences in the mat sample from Elegedi. Taxonomy was assigned to each OTU using BLASTn against a curated database derived from GreenGenes, RDPII, SILVA SSU Reference 119 and NCBI. The proportion of potential pathogens from the water samples was highest in Maiwooi (17.8%), followed by Gelti (16.7%), Akwar (13.6%) and Garbanabra (10.9%). Although the numbers of DNA sequence reads from Illumina sequencing were very high for the Elegedi (104,328), corresponding proportion of potential pathogens very low (3.6%). Most of the potential pathogenic bacterial sequences identified were from Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. Legionella and Clostridium were the most common detected genera with different species. Most of the potential pathogens were detected from the water samples. However, sequences belonging to Clostridium were observed more abundantly from the mat samples. This study employed high-throughput sequencing technologies to determine the presence of pathogenic bacteria in the five hot springs in Eritrea.

Dataset Information

Metagenomic Sequencing Revealed the Potential Pathogenic Threats of Banknotes.

Publications

Metagenomic Sequencing Revealed the Potential Pathogenic Threats of Banknotes.

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