Genome Sequences of Microviruses Identified in a Sample from a Sewage Treatment Oxidation Pond.

Oxidation ponds are often used in the treatment of sewage as an aeration step prior to discharge. We identified 99 microvirus genomes from a sample from a sewage oxidation pond. This diverse group of microviruses expands our knowledge of bacteriophages associated with sewage oxidation pond ecosystems.

Characterisation of a diverse range of circular replication-associated protein encoding DNA viruses recovered from a sewage treatment oxidation pond.

Our knowledge of circular replication-associated protein encoding single-stranded (CRESS) DNA virus diversity has increased dramatically in recent years, largely due to advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies. These viruses are apparently major virome components in most terrestrial and aquatic environments and it is therefore of interest to determine their diversity at the interfaces between these environments. Treated sewage water is a particularly interesting interface between terrestrial and aquatic viromes in that it is directly pumped into waterways and is likely to contain virus populations that have been strongly impacted by humans. We used a combination of high-throughput sequencing, full genome PCR amplification, cloning and Sanger sequencing to investigate the diversity of CRESS DNA viruses present in a sewage oxidation pond. Using this approach, we recovered 50 putatively complete novel CRESS viral genomes (it remains possible that some are components of multipartite viral genomes) and 11 putatively sub-genome-length circular DNA molecules which may be either defective genomes or components of multipartite genomes. Thirteen of the genomes have bidirectional genome organisations and share similar conserved replication-associated protein (Rep) motifs to those of the gemycircularviruses: a group that in turn is most closely related to the geminiviruses. The remaining 37 viral genomes share very low degrees of Rep similarity to those of all other known CRESS DNA viruses. This number of highly divergent CRESS DNA virus genomes within a single sewage treatment pond further reinforces the notion that there likely exist hundreds of completely unknown genus/family level CRESS DNA virus groupings.

Principal component analysis of fluorescence changes upon growth conditions and washing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

We have measured the autofluorescence from suspensions of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the growth medium and after one, two, and three washes. The bacterium was grown in two different media, nutrient broth and King's B broth. The bacterium was harvested after 12, 24, and 48 h of growth. The fluorescence was measured with excitation every 10 nm from 200 nm to 600 nm. The fluorescence profiles were analyzed using principal component analysis. We found that most of the information is in the first three principal components. Stark differences in the value of the first principal component were noted between the samples in broth and those with one, two, or three washings. The second and third principal components noted differences between the samples washed once and those washed two or three times. There was no significant difference between samples washed two and three times. There are small differences noted between the samples grown in the two different broths, and no differences were noted among the samples harvested at different times.