Assessment of the Microbiome of the Roman Baths, United Kingdom, by Oxford Nanopore full-length 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing. Roman Baths 16S Profiling

Background: The Roman Baths, UK is a UNESCO world heritage site which contains one of the few thermal springs in the British Isles. Previous investigations of the site have isolated a handful of novel bacterial species with metabolic characteristics that are in keeping with the reported geochemistry of the waters that may have potential commercial bio-catalytic value. However, no assessments of the microbiome of the waters have been reported to date. We profiled the microbiome of the thermal waters by means of full-length 16S rRNA gene profiling using an Oxford Nanopore MinIONTM sequencer.Results: Our analysis returned 1,163,873 reads that were classified across 10 bacterial phyla and 14 classes. Betaproteobacteria dominated, whilst classes containing species previously isolated from the waters using culture-based methods made a very small portion of the sample. The analysis also returned reads classified into 28 genera which are diverse; some have been reported to have metabolic characteristics that are in keeping with the known geochemistry of the waters and are of potential bio-catalytic value.Conclusions: The data presented in this report, to the best of our knowledge, give the first assessment of the microbiome of the thermal spring waters of the Roman Baths, UK. The data show a diverse microbiome that is more comprehensive than what has previously been isolated by culture techniques and highlights the presence of bacterial species with reported metabolisms suited to the reported geochemistry of the waters and they may have potential commercial value.

背景：英国罗马浴场是联合国教科文组织（UNESCO）世界遗产地，拥有不列颠群岛为数不多的地热温泉之一。此前针对该遗址的研究已分离出少量新型细菌物种，其代谢特征与已报道的水体地球化学特征相符，且具备潜在的商业生物催化价值。但迄今为止，尚无针对该水体微生物组的评估研究报道。本研究采用牛津纳米孔MinION™测序仪，通过全长16S rRNA基因测序技术对地热泉水体的微生物组进行了分析。
结果：本分析共获得1,163,873条有效读段，可归类至10个细菌门和14个细菌纲。其中β-变形菌纲（Betaproteobacteria）占绝对优势，而此前通过培养法从该水体中分离得到的物种所属的纲仅占样本的极小比例。分析还鉴定出28个多样性丰富的菌属；部分菌属的代谢特征与已知的水体地球化学特征相符，且具备潜在的生物催化价值。
结论：据我们所知，本报告所呈现的数据首次完成了英国罗马浴场地热泉水体微生物组的评估。数据显示该微生物组多样性丰富，较此前通过培养技术分离得到的物种更为全面，且其中存在代谢特征与该水体已报道的地球化学特征相匹配的细菌物种，具备潜在的商业应用价值。