New Drinking Water\nGenome Catalog Identifies a Globally\nDistributed Bacterial Genus Adapted to Disinfected Drinking Water\nSystems

Genome-resolved insights into the structure and function\nof the\ndrinking water microbiome can advance the effective management of\ndrinking water quality. To enable this, we constructed and curated\nthousands of metagenome-assembled and isolate genomes from drinking\nwater distribution systems globally to develop a Drinking Water Genome\nCatalog (DWGC). The current DWGC disproportionately represents disinfected\ndrinking water systems due to a paucity of metagenomes from nondisinfected\nsystems. Using the DWGC, we identify core genera of the drinking water\nmicrobiome including a genus (UBA4765) within the order Rhizobiales\nthat is frequently detected and highly abundant in disinfected drinking\nwater systems. We demonstrate that this genus has been widely detected\nbut incorrectly classified in previous amplicon sequencing-based investigations\nof the drinking water microbiome. Further, we show that a single genome\nvariant (genomovar) within this genus is detected in 75% of drinking\nwater systems included in this study. We propose a name for this uncultured\nbacterium as “Raskinella chloraquaticus” and describe the genus as “<i>Raskinella</i>” (endorsed by SeqCode). Metabolic annotation and modeling-based\npredictions indicate that this bacterium is capable of necrotrophic\ngrowth, is able to metabolize halogenated compounds, proliferates\nin a biofilm-based environment, and shows clear indications of disinfection-mediated\nselection.