| Summary: |
Water pollution is a Health and Environmental urgency of our century. Providing safe water for all is a priority of the United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable
Development Goals. Global social-demographic-economic-environmental dramatic changes, including extreme drought, have greatly accelerated the
emergence of micropollutants (persistent, biologically active substances in low concentrations) in water bodies everywhere (1). Among them are the ubiquitous
and persistent Quaternary ammonium compounds-Qac in urban waters/sediments. They are high-production volume antimicrobials used in antiseptics,
disinfectants/sanitizers, pesticides or cosmetics, with a predicted increasing market trend until 2027 (2-5). Actually, studies described higher concentrations of
Qac in aquatic settings than other conventional organic contaminants (3). They can endanger biodiversity (e.g.,plants/animals/microbiota) relevant to
ecosystems equilibrium and restoration, besides contributing to the environmental expansion of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as bacteria can co-acquire
genes to overcome Qac and other antimicrobials (6,7). AMR expansion driven by diverse pollutants can be a silent but serious threat to global human/animal
health (8,9).
Currently, we don't know the Qac concentrations impacting microbiota diversity and AMR expansion in the aquatic setting and we lack known
bioindicator(s) that can be included in water quality routine analysis for Qac early detection, precluding solution-oriented plans to obtain efficient water
treatments (2). CLEANWATER aims to fulfill this gap by assessing the impact of Qac pollution in microbiota diversity and in the spread of AMR bacteria/genes in
surface waters supplying human and animal populations of the Porto region. From such study we also aim to identify microbial bioindicators that can early
detect Qac pollution in routine water quality analysis. The integration of microbial biodiversity and Qac concentrations data of 3  |
Summary
Water pollution is a Health and Environmental urgency of our century. Providing safe water for all is a priority of the United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable
Development Goals. Global social-demographic-economic-environmental dramatic changes, including extreme drought, have greatly accelerated the
emergence of micropollutants (persistent, biologically active substances in low concentrations) in water bodies everywhere (1). Among them are the ubiquitous
and persistent Quaternary ammonium compounds-Qac in urban waters/sediments. They are high-production volume antimicrobials used in antiseptics,
disinfectants/sanitizers, pesticides or cosmetics, with a predicted increasing market trend until 2027 (2-5). Actually, studies described higher concentrations of
Qac in aquatic settings than other conventional organic contaminants (3). They can endanger biodiversity (e.g.,plants/animals/microbiota) relevant to
ecosystems equilibrium and restoration, besides contributing to the environmental expansion of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as bacteria can co-acquire
genes to overcome Qac and other antimicrobials (6,7). AMR expansion driven by diverse pollutants can be a silent but serious threat to global human/animal
health (8,9).
Currently, we don't know the Qac concentrations impacting microbiota diversity and AMR expansion in the aquatic setting and we lack known
bioindicator(s) that can be included in water quality routine analysis for Qac early detection, precluding solution-oriented plans to obtain efficient water
treatments (2). CLEANWATER aims to fulfill this gap by assessing the impact of Qac pollution in microbiota diversity and in the spread of AMR bacteria/genes in
surface waters supplying human and animal populations of the Porto region. From such study we also aim to identify microbial bioindicators that can early
detect Qac pollution in routine water quality analysis. The integration of microbial biodiversity and Qac concentrations data of 3 rivers with diverse ecological
status will be a novelty to approach Qac pollution and of major interest to validate Qac microbial bioindicators. We will assess the fluctuations of aquatic Qac
concentrations by LC-MS/MS during wet and dry seasons, impacting differently microbial biodiversity. The latter will be studied by culturomics and
metagenomics+genomics as major innovative approaches. Two most probable scenarios are expected from CLEANWATER. In the 1st, the metagenomic data will
show major shifts in microbiota diversity in rivers polluted with Qac, and cultivable bioindicators (EU Directive 2020/2184) will carry particular genetic markers.
Both cases will allow the identification of microbial taxa(s) suitable as Qac pollution bioindicators. In a 2nd, only metagenomic data will allow identifying
microbial taxa(s) alternative(s) to current EU standard water quality bioindicators, as clear genetic markers will not be found in cultivable bioindicators strains
isolated from Qac polluted rivers. In addition to these scenarios, chemical+metagenomic+genomic approaches will show if Qac polluted rivers have an impact
on microbial biodiversity towards the selection of AMR bacteria relevant to human/animal health.
REQUIMTE/FFUP/FCNAUP, IUCS and RyCH researchers of CLEANWATER have a long successful collaboration in biocide tolerance and AMR topics within the One
Health perspective, being an asset for project success. This international team has expertise in the study of chemical pollutants in the aquatic setting, in cuttingedge
methods (e.g.WGS/metagenomics), bioinformatic pipelines development and ana |