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Updated: May 1, 2026
Pyrosequencing for Microbial Identification and Characterization
Published on: August 22, 2013
Use of pyrosequencing to explore the benthic bacterial community structure in a river impacted by wastewater
Elisabet Marti1, José Luis Balcázar1
1Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain.
Abstract:
In this study, we determined the diversity and composition of benthic bacterial communities collected in river sediments upstream and downstream from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Pyrosequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes revealed notable differences between the communities from upstream and downstream sites. In particular, a higher relative abundance of Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, Deltaproteobacteria and Firmicutes and a lower proportion of Gammaproteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia sequences were detected at the downstream site compared to the upstream site. These findings represent a first approximation of the impact of WWTP discharges on environmental microbial communities.
