Depicting the Biofilm Microbiome of Plumbing Systems in Apartment-Type Residential Buildings Using Bioinformatics Tools

Microorganisms are widely disseminated throughout the built environment, and even those found in hidden areas such as plumbing systems can harm human health. Indoor plumbing is known to be a system of pipes and fixtures installed in a building that enables the use and distribution of water and the disposal of waterborne wastes. When appropriate conditions are guaranteed inside the building water system, multiple microorganisms, particularly bacteria, grow and multiply to form what is called a biofilm. Until now, the majority of studies on indoor plumbing bacterial communities have concentrated on those found in hospitals and healthcare facilities, with little information available on plumbings in residential or communal settings. In this study, we used 16S rRNA amplicon-sequencing publicly available data to characterize the bacterial communities colonizing plumbing systems of apartment-type residential buildings in Seoul, South Korea, and to examine the diversity and abundance of bacteria that live in this environment. Bioinformatics and statistical analysis of generated 16S sequences data demonstrated that community composition and structure were variable. Proteobacteria was the most abundant phylum in the plumbing communities, and the families Sphingomonadaceae, Bradyrhizobiaceae, and Pseudomonadaceae, were found to be the most abundant. This study presents preliminary findings on microbial diversity and abundance in plumbing networks of residential buildings, which can facilitate public health management and the development of approaches and strategies to decrease microbial risks to human health, as well as provide a basis for future research on the stability and resilience of bacterial communities in this environment.