Project description:We characterized the bacterial diversity of chlorinated drinking water from three surface water treatment plants supplying the city of Paris, France. For this purpose, we used serial analysis of V6 ribosomal sequence tag (SARST-V6) to produce concatemers of PCR-amplified ribosomal sequence tags (RSTs) from the V6 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene for sequence analysis. Using SARST-V6, we obtained bacterial profiles for each drinking water sample, demonstrating a strikingly high degree of biodiversity dominated by a large collection of low-abundance phylotypes. In all water samples, between 57.2-77.4% of the sequences obtained indicated bacteria belonging to the Proteobacteria phylum. Full-length 16S rDNA sequences were also generated for each sample, and comparison of the RSTs with these sequences confirmed the accurate assignment for several abundant bacterial phyla identified by SARST-V6 analysis, including members of unclassified bacteria, which account for 6.3-36.5% of all V6 sequences. These results suggest that these bacteria may correspond to a common group adapted to drinking water systems. The V6 primers used were subsequently evaluated with a computer algorithm to assess their hybridization efficiency. Potential errors associated with primer-template mismatches and their impacts on taxonomic group detection were investigated. The biodiversity present in all three drinking water samples suggests that the bacterial load of the drinking water leaving treatment plants may play an important role in determining the downstream community dynamics of water distribution networks.
Project description:We characterized the bacterial diversity of chlorinated drinking water from three surface water treatment plants supplying the city of Paris, France. For this purpose, we used serial analysis of V6 ribosomal sequence tag (SARST-V6) to produce concatemers of PCR-amplified ribosomal sequence tags (RSTs) from the V6 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene for sequence analysis. Using SARST-V6, we obtained bacterial profiles for each drinking water sample, demonstrating a strikingly high degree of biodiversity dominated by a large collection of low-abundance phylotypes. In all water samples, between 57.2-77.4% of the sequences obtained indicated bacteria belonging to the Proteobacteria phylum. Full-length 16S rDNA sequences were also generated for each sample, and comparison of the RSTs with these sequences confirmed the accurate assignment for several abundant bacterial phyla identified by SARST-V6 analysis, including members of unclassified bacteria, which account for 6.3-36.5% of all V6 sequences. These results suggest that these bacteria may correspond to a common group adapted to drinking water systems. The V6 primers used were subsequently evaluated with a computer algorithm to assess their hybridization efficiency. Potential errors associated with primer-template mismatches and their impacts on taxonomic group detection were investigated. The biodiversity present in all three drinking water samples suggests that the bacterial load of the drinking water leaving treatment plants may play an important role in determining the downstream community dynamics of water distribution networks. 3 different drinking water samples (Orly, Ivry, Joinville drinking water sample)
Project description:Water immersion insertion has been documented to decrease procedure-related discomfort during colonoscopy. There was used warm water infusion for colonoscope insertion in most of the water immersion colonoscopy trials.
The investigators have been using room temperature water (20-24°C) for water immersion and the investigators did not notice any drawback of it. In our opinion, it is simpler and cheaper option for water immersion colonoscopy and proof of its efficacy and safety could support the use of water immersion technique in routine practice.
The primary endpoint is cecal intubation time and the investigators suppose that the use of warm water infusion does not shorten it significantly. Patient comfort during colonoscope insertion, water consumption, length of the scope while reaching the cecum, need for external compression, need for positioning of the patient and endoscopist´s difficulty with colonoscopy will be also assessed.
Project description:Legionella pneumophila (Lp) is an opportunistic pathogen and its survival in water is critical for human infection. Therefore, identifying the genes of Lp that are required for survival in water may help devise strategies to prevent Legionella outbreaks. In this study, we exposed Lp in rich medium and in an artificial freshwater medium (Fraquil) for 2, 6 and 24 hours to uncover the global transcriptomic changes of Lp in water. The repression of major metabolic pathways, such as division, transcription and translation, suggests that Lp enters a dormant state in water. The induction of the flagellar associated genes (flg, fli and mot), enhance entry genes (enh) and some Icm/Dot effectors suggests that Lp may be waiting to establish intracellular replication in suitable host. Moreover, many genes involved in resistance to antibiotic and oxidative stress were induced, suggesting that Lp may be more tolerant to environmental stresses in water. Indeed, Lp exposed to water is more resistant to erythromycin, gentamycin and kanamycin than those cultured in rich medium. Apart from this, the gene bdhA involved in the degradation of the intracellular energy storage compound poly-hydroxybutyrate is highly expressed in water. Further characterization shows that bdhA is positively regulated by RpoS during short-term exposure to water. The deletion mutant of bdhA had a survival defect in water at 37°C, demonstrating that this gene is important for maintaining the long-term survivorship of Lp in water. Other identified genes highly induced upon exposure to water could also be necessary for Lp to survive in water.