Lakes and lagoons used for drinking water supply and fisheries as sources of potentially pathogenic bacteria and antimicrobial resistance

Drinking water supplies and water basins used for fisheries represent two essential water sources for the sustenance of human activities. Despite the growing accessibility of metagenomic approaches, their routine use for the monitoring of water quality is still limited. In this study, surface water samples were collected in two different sites: the artificial lake Bidighinzu (drinking water supply) and the coastal lagoon Cabras (fisheries), both located in the Mediterranean area. Samples were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene amplicon and shotgun sequencings and their bacterial communities, pathobiomes, and antimicrobial resistomes were characterized. An experiment was also conducted to evaluate how the bacterial community, pathobiome, and antimicrobial resistome of these two water sources respond to a simulated heat wave, which is increasingly frequent in the era of climate change.