Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems

Opportunistic pathogens (OPs) are natural inhabitants and the predominant disease causative biotic agents in municipal engineered water systems (EWSs). In EWSs, OPs occur at high frequencies and concentrations, cause drinking-water-related disease outbreaks, and are a major factor threatening public...

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Autores principales:	Chiqian Zhang, Jingrang Lu
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	Legionella pneumophila Mycobacterium Pseudomonas drinking water distribution systems premise plumbing public health Environmental sciences GE1-350
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/9b716f24e7c3452d876f59969b5d1713
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:9b716f24e7c3452d876f59969b5d1713
record_format	dspace
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Legionella pneumophila Mycobacterium Pseudomonas drinking water distribution systems premise plumbing public health Environmental sciences GE1-350
spellingShingle	Legionella pneumophila Mycobacterium Pseudomonas drinking water distribution systems premise plumbing public health Environmental sciences GE1-350 Chiqian Zhang Jingrang Lu Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems
description	Opportunistic pathogens (OPs) are natural inhabitants and the predominant disease causative biotic agents in municipal engineered water systems (EWSs). In EWSs, OPs occur at high frequencies and concentrations, cause drinking-water-related disease outbreaks, and are a major factor threatening public health. Therefore, the prevalence of OPs in EWSs represents microbial drinking water quality. Closely or routinely monitoring the dynamics of OPs in municipal EWSs is thus critical to ensuring drinking water quality and protecting public health. Monitoring the dynamics of conventional (fecal) indicators (e.g., total coliforms, fecal coliforms, and Escherichia coli) is the customary or even exclusive means of assessing microbial drinking water quality. However, those indicators infer only fecal contamination due to treatment (e.g., disinfection within water utilities) failure and EWS infrastructure issues (e.g., water main breaks and infiltration), whereas OPs are not contaminants in drinking water. In addition, those indicators appear in EWSs at low concentrations (often absent in well-maintained EWSs) and are uncorrelated with OPs. For instance, conventional indicators decay, while OPs regrow with increasing hydraulic residence time. As a result, conventional indicators are poor indicators of OPs (the major aspect of microbial drinking water quality) in EWSs. An additional or supplementary indicator that can well infer the prevalence of OPs in EWSs is highly needed. This systematic review argues that Legionella as a dominant OP-containing genus and natural inhabitant in EWSs is a promising candidate for such a supplementary indicator. Through comprehensively comparing the behavior (i.e., occurrence, growth and regrowth, spatiotemporal variations in concentrations, resistance to disinfectant residuals, and responses to physicochemical water quality parameters) of major OPs (e.g., Legionella especially L. pneumophila, Mycobacterium, and Pseudomonas especially P. aeruginosa), this review proves that Legionella is a promising supplementary indicator for the prevalence of OPs in EWSs while other OPs lack this indication feature. Legionella as a dominant natural inhabitant in EWSs occurs frequently, has a high concentration, and correlates with more microbial and physicochemical water quality parameters than other common OPs. Legionella and OPs in EWSs share multiple key features such as high disinfectant resistance, biofilm formation, proliferation within amoebae, and significant spatiotemporal variations in concentrations. Therefore, the presence and concentration of Legionella well indicate the presence and concentrations of OPs (especially L. pneumophila) and microbial drinking water quality in EWSs. In addition, Legionella concentration indicates the efficacies of disinfectant residuals in EWSs. Furthermore, with the development of modern Legionella quantification methods (especially quantitative polymerase chain reactions), monitoring Legionella in ESWs is becoming easier, more affordable, and less labor-intensive. Those features make Legionella a proper supplementary indicator for microbial drinking water quality (especially the prevalence of OPs) in EWSs. Water authorities may use Legionella and conventional indicators in combination to more comprehensively assess microbial drinking water quality in municipal EWSs. Future work should further explore the indication role of Legionella in EWSs and propose drinking water Legionella concentration limits that indicate serious public health effects and require enhanced treatment (e.g., booster disinfection).
format	article
author	Chiqian Zhang Jingrang Lu
author_facet	Chiqian Zhang Jingrang Lu
author_sort	Chiqian Zhang
title	Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems
title_short	Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems
title_full	Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems
title_fullStr	Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems
title_full_unstemmed	Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems
title_sort	legionella: a promising supplementary indicator of microbial drinking water quality in municipal engineered water systems
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/9b716f24e7c3452d876f59969b5d1713
work_keys_str_mv	AT chiqianzhang legionellaapromisingsupplementaryindicatorofmicrobialdrinkingwaterqualityinmunicipalengineeredwatersystems AT jingranglu legionellaapromisingsupplementaryindicatorofmicrobialdrinkingwaterqualityinmunicipalengineeredwatersystems
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:9b716f24e7c3452d876f59969b5d17132021-11-10T06:43:43ZLegionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems2296-665X10.3389/fenvs.2021.684319https://doaj.org/article/9b716f24e7c3452d876f59969b5d17132021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.684319/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2296-665XOpportunistic pathogens (OPs) are natural inhabitants and the predominant disease causative biotic agents in municipal engineered water systems (EWSs). In EWSs, OPs occur at high frequencies and concentrations, cause drinking-water-related disease outbreaks, and are a major factor threatening public health. Therefore, the prevalence of OPs in EWSs represents microbial drinking water quality. Closely or routinely monitoring the dynamics of OPs in municipal EWSs is thus critical to ensuring drinking water quality and protecting public health. Monitoring the dynamics of conventional (fecal) indicators (e.g., total coliforms, fecal coliforms, and Escherichia coli) is the customary or even exclusive means of assessing microbial drinking water quality. However, those indicators infer only fecal contamination due to treatment (e.g., disinfection within water utilities) failure and EWS infrastructure issues (e.g., water main breaks and infiltration), whereas OPs are not contaminants in drinking water. In addition, those indicators appear in EWSs at low concentrations (often absent in well-maintained EWSs) and are uncorrelated with OPs. For instance, conventional indicators decay, while OPs regrow with increasing hydraulic residence time. As a result, conventional indicators are poor indicators of OPs (the major aspect of microbial drinking water quality) in EWSs. An additional or supplementary indicator that can well infer the prevalence of OPs in EWSs is highly needed. This systematic review argues that Legionella as a dominant OP-containing genus and natural inhabitant in EWSs is a promising candidate for such a supplementary indicator. Through comprehensively comparing the behavior (i.e., occurrence, growth and regrowth, spatiotemporal variations in concentrations, resistance to disinfectant residuals, and responses to physicochemical water quality parameters) of major OPs (e.g., Legionella especially L. pneumophila, Mycobacterium, and Pseudomonas especially P. aeruginosa), this review proves that Legionella is a promising supplementary indicator for the prevalence of OPs in EWSs while other OPs lack this indication feature. Legionella as a dominant natural inhabitant in EWSs occurs frequently, has a high concentration, and correlates with more microbial and physicochemical water quality parameters than other common OPs. Legionella and OPs in EWSs share multiple key features such as high disinfectant resistance, biofilm formation, proliferation within amoebae, and significant spatiotemporal variations in concentrations. Therefore, the presence and concentration of Legionella well indicate the presence and concentrations of OPs (especially L. pneumophila) and microbial drinking water quality in EWSs. In addition, Legionella concentration indicates the efficacies of disinfectant residuals in EWSs. Furthermore, with the development of modern Legionella quantification methods (especially quantitative polymerase chain reactions), monitoring Legionella in ESWs is becoming easier, more affordable, and less labor-intensive. Those features make Legionella a proper supplementary indicator for microbial drinking water quality (especially the prevalence of OPs) in EWSs. Water authorities may use Legionella and conventional indicators in combination to more comprehensively assess microbial drinking water quality in municipal EWSs. Future work should further explore the indication role of Legionella in EWSs and propose drinking water Legionella concentration limits that indicate serious public health effects and require enhanced treatment (e.g., booster disinfection).Chiqian ZhangJingrang LuFrontiers Media S.A.articleLegionella pneumophilaMycobacteriumPseudomonasdrinking water distribution systemspremise plumbingpublic healthEnvironmental sciencesGE1-350ENFrontiers in Environmental Science, Vol 9 (2021)

Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems

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