16S rRNA Gene High-Throughput Sequencing for Bacterial Communities in Bathroom Tap and Shower Water

We sampled cold tap, hot tap, and shower water from a bathroom (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) monthly for 16 consecutive months. We then extracted microbial genomic DNA from each sample, amplified the V3-V4 regions of bacterial 16S rRNA gene from the samples via polymerase chain reactions, and sequenced the regions via high-throughput sequencing (Illumina Mi-Seq). We analyzed the sequencing data with Mothur (mothur.org) to understand the differences in the structures of bacterial communities in the cold tap, hot tap, and shower water samples.