Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Water and Sediment Nile Microbial Community Along an Urban Metropolis.

Assessing microbial identity, diversity, and community structure could be a valuable tool for monitoring the impact of xenobiotics and anthropogenic inputs in rivers, especially in urban and industrial settings. Here, we characterize the Nile River microbial community in water and sediments in summer and winter at five locations that span its natural flow through the Cairo metropolis. 16S rRNA gene datasets were analyzed to identify the role played by sample type (sediment versus water), season, and location in shaping the community, as well as to predict functional potential of the Nile River microbiome. Microbial communities were mostly influenced by sampling type (sediments versus water), while seasonal effects were only observed in water samples. Spatial differences did not represent a significant factor in shaping the community in either summer or winter seasons. Proteobacteria was the most abundant phylum in both water and sediment samples, with the order Betaproteobacteriales being the abundant one. Chloroflexi and Bacteroidetes were also prevalent in sediment samples, while Cyanobacteria and Actinobacteria were abundant in water samples. The linear discriminative analysis effect size (LEfSe) identified the cyanobacterial genus Cyanobium PCC-6307 as the main variable between summer and winter water. Sequences representing human and animal potential pathogens, as well as toxin-producing Cyanobacteria, were identified in low abundance within the Nile microbiome. Functionally predicted metabolic pathways predicted the presence of antibiotic biosynthesis, as well as aerobic xenobiotic degradation pathways in the river microbiome.

The Nile River Microbiome Reveals a Remarkably Stable Community Between Wet and Dry Seasons, and Sampling Sites, in a Large Urban Metropolis (Cairo, Egypt).

World freshwater supplies are in need of microbiome diversity analyses as a first step to future ecological studies, and to monitor water safety and quality. The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa that displays both spatial and temporal variations in its water quality. Here, we present the first microbiome analysis of the Nile River water in two seasons: (1) summer representing the wet season, and (2) winter representing the dry season, as sampled around Cairo, the capital of Egypt. Surface river water samples were collected from selected locations along the path of river, and the microbial composition was analyzed by next-generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. We found a striking stability in the Nile microbiome community structure along the examined geographical urban sites and between the wet and dry seasons as evidenced by the high proportion of shared operational taxonomic unit values among all samples. The community was dominated by the Cyanobacteria (mainly Synechococcus), Actinobacteria candidate family (ACK-M1), and Proteobacteria (mainly family Comamonadaceae). Among these dominant taxa, Synechococcus exhibited seasonal driven variation in relative abundance. Other taxa were predominantly rare across all seasons and locations, including genera members of which have been implicated as pathogens such as Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, and Legionella. In addition, comparisons with data on freshwater microbiome in other world regions suggest that surface water communities in large rivers exhibit limited variation. Our results offer the first insights on microbial composition in one of the most notable rivers near a large metropolis.