{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,15]],"date-time":"2025-08-15T00:11:58Z","timestamp":1755216718173,"version":"3.43.0"},"reference-count":71,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,4]],"date-time":"2025-08-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1754265600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>Access to safe drinking water remains a critical public health priority, as waterborne diseases continue to pose global health risks. In China, microbial contamination in household water supplies is of particular concern. Traditional culture-based monitoring methods are limited in sensitivity and scope, and scaling such efforts nationwide would demand significant resources. Comprehensive, culture-independent microbiome assessments are therefore needed to better characterize microbial risks in tap water.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>To address this gap, we developed a cost-effective, citizen science-based approach for monitoring the tap water microbiome. Between December 2020 and August 2021, 50 household tap water samples were collected by volunteers across 19 provinces and regions in China, including several samples obtained before and\/or after extreme weather events including the 2021 Henan Floods and Typhoon In-Fa. A low-biomass sampling protocol was developed and adopted, and DNA was extracted and analyzed via 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding targeting the V4 region.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Of the 50 samples, 22 were successfully amplified and yielded DNA with a significant number of sequencing reads. High-throughput amplicon sequencing identified 7,635 Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs), revealing a diverse microbiome in household tap water. Opportunistic pathogens, including <jats:italic>Mycobacterium<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Acinetobacter<\/jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>Legionella<\/jats:italic>, were detected in all PCR-positive samples. Alarmingly, post-typhoon samples from Changzhou showed a marked increase in the relative abundance of <jats:italic>Escherichia coli<\/jats:italic>.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Although based on a limited number of sequenced samples, this study highlights potential microbial risks in household tap water, particularly following extreme weather events. The presence of multiple opportunistic and potentially pathogenic taxa underscores the limitations of traditional indicator-based monitoring. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of citizen science for microbial water quality survey, offering a complementary tool for national monitoring and informing future public health strategies for water safety.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2025.1609070","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,4]],"date-time":"2025-08-04T16:06:58Z","timestamp":1754323618000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Mapping total microbial communities and waterborne pathogens in household drinking water in China by citizen science and metabarcoding"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Xinyi","family":"Wen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chutong","family":"Fang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lihan","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jiazheng","family":"Miao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yajuan","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"28","DOI":"10.5334\/cstp.222","article-title":"Usability of existing volunteer water monitoring data: what can the literature tell us?","volume":"4","author":"Albus","year":"2019","journal-title":"Citizen Sci. Theory Pract."},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"265","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijfoodmicro.2003.08.017","article-title":"Heterotrophic plate count bacteria\u2014what is their significance in drinking water?","volume":"92","author":"Allen","year":"2004","journal-title":"Int. J. Food Microbiol."},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/s12302-019-0193-1","article-title":"Future water quality monitoring: improving the balance between exposure and toxicity assessments of real-world pollutant mixtures","volume":"31","author":"Altenburger","year":"2019","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Eur."},{"volume-title":"Water, waterborne pathogens and public health: Environmental drivers","year":"2025","key":"ref4"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"839407","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2022.839407","article-title":"Estimating alpha, beta, and gamma diversity through deep learning","volume":"13","author":"Andermann","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front. Plant Sci."},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"95","DOI":"10.1007\/s40572-014-0037-5","article-title":"Microbial contamination of drinking water and human health from community water systems","volume":"2","author":"Ashbolt","year":"2015","journal-title":"Curr. Environ. Health Rep."},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"181871","DOI":"10.1098\/rsos.181871","article-title":"Citizen science in Lebanon-a case study for groundwater quality monitoring","volume":"6","author":"Baalbaki","year":"2019","journal-title":"R. Soc. Open Sci."},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"631","DOI":"10.1039\/C6EW00030D","article-title":"Emerging investigators series: microbial communities in full-scale drinking water distribution systems\u2013a meta-analysis","volume":"2","author":"Bautista-de los Santos","year":"2016","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Water Res. Technol."},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"284","DOI":"10.3390\/w10030284","article-title":"Public participation in science: the future and value of citizen science in the drinking water research","volume":"10","author":"Brouwer","year":"2018","journal-title":"Water"},{"key":"ref10","first-page":"1","article-title":"Comparison of two citizen scientist methods for collecting pond water samples for environmental DNA studies","volume":"3","author":"Buxton","year":"2018","journal-title":"Ctizen Sci. Theory Pract."},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"581","DOI":"10.1038\/nmeth.3869","article-title":"DADA2: high-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data","volume":"13","author":"Callahan","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nat. Methods"},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"421","DOI":"10.1186\/1471-2105-10-421","article-title":"BLAST+: architecture and applications","volume":"10","author":"Camacho","year":"2009","journal-title":"BMC Bioinformatics"},{"article-title":"Zhengzhou Rainstorm Once in a thousand years? The meteorological authority responded: A year's rain fell in one day","year":"2021","author":"Chen","key":"ref13"},{"key":"ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4038","DOI":"10.1021\/es4055725","article-title":"Differential resistance of drinking water bacterial populations to monochloramine disinfection","volume":"48","author":"Chiao","year":"2014","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Technol."},{"year":"2023","key":"ref15","article-title":"Syringe Filters"},{"key":"ref16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"42","DOI":"10.1186\/s40168-020-00813-0","article-title":"Disinfection exhibits systematic impacts on the drinking water microbiome","volume":"8","author":"Dai","year":"2020","journal-title":"Microbiome"},{"year":"2022","key":"ref17","article-title":"Learn about Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins"},{"year":"2023","key":"ref18","article-title":"Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) and Regulatory Determination"},{"volume-title":"COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT: Best practices in citizen science for environmental monitoring","year":"2020","key":"ref19"},{"key":"ref20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s10661-025-13644-z","article-title":"Recent developments in waterborne pathogen detection technologies","volume":"197","author":"Feleni","year":"2025","journal-title":"Environ. Monit. Assess."},{"key":"ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"577","DOI":"10.1111\/1462-2920.12430","article-title":"Microbial diversity and dynamics of a groundwater and a still bottled natural mineral water","volume":"17","author":"Franca","year":"2015","journal-title":"Environ. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"116907","DOI":"10.1016\/j.watres.2021.116907","article-title":"Next generation sequencing approaches to evaluate water and wastewater quality","volume":"194","author":"Garner","year":"2021","journal-title":"Water Res."},{"key":"ref23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"104196","DOI":"10.1016\/j.resmic.2024.104196","article-title":"The influence of the phylum Planctomycetota in the environmental resistome","volume":"175","author":"Godinho","year":"2024","journal-title":"Res. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1092","DOI":"10.1038\/ismej.2013.10","article-title":"Robust estimation of microbial diversity in theory and in practice","volume":"7","author":"Haegeman","year":"2013","journal-title":"ISME J."},{"key":"ref25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"115469","DOI":"10.1016\/j.watres.2020.115469","article-title":"Assessing the impact of source water on tap water bacterial communities in 46 drinking water supply systems in China","volume":"172","author":"Han","year":"2020","journal-title":"Water Res."},{"article-title":"The importance of citizen scientists American forests","year":"2018","author":"Harper","key":"ref26"},{"key":"ref27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0238349","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0238349","article-title":"Citizen science: an alternative way for water monitoring in Hong Kong","volume":"15","author":"Ho","year":"2020","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"ref28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4220","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.est.6b06064","article-title":"Longitudinal and source-to-tap New Orleans, LA, USA drinking water microbiology","volume":"51","author":"Hull","year":"2017","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100101","DOI":"10.1016\/j.wroa.2021.100101","article-title":"Diverse and active archaea communities occur in non-disinfected drinking water systems-less activity revealed in disinfected and hot water systems","volume":"12","author":"Inkinen","year":"2021","journal-title":"Water Res X."},{"key":"ref30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"361","DOI":"10.1111\/1574-6941.12002","article-title":"Bacterial diversity from the source to the tap: a comparative study based on 16S rRNA gene-DGGE and culture-dependent methods","volume":"83","author":"Ivone","year":"2013","journal-title":"FEMS Microbiol. Ecol."},{"key":"ref31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0141087","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0141087","article-title":"Impact of water chemistry, pipe material and stagnation on the building plumbing microbiome","volume":"10","author":"Ji","year":"2015","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"ref32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"12271","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.est.5b03521","article-title":"Bacterial community shift drives antibiotic resistance promotion during drinking water chlorination","volume":"49","author":"Jia","year":"2015","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5029","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-019-13036-1","article-title":"Evaluation of 16S rRNA gene sequencing for species and strain-level microbiome analysis","volume":"10","author":"Johnson","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"ref34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5112","DOI":"10.1128\/AEM.01043-13","article-title":"Development of a dual-index sequencing strategy and curation pipeline for analyzing amplicon sequence data on the MiSeq Illumina sequencing platform","volume":"79","author":"Kozich","year":"2013","journal-title":"Appl. Environ. Microbiol."},{"volume-title":"Aquatic pollution: An introductory text","year":"2017","author":"Laws","key":"ref35"},{"key":"ref36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2902","DOI":"10.1039\/D0EW00334D","article-title":"Drinking water microbiology in a water-efficient building: stagnation, seasonality, and physicochemical effects on opportunistic pathogen and total bacteria proliferation","volume":"6","author":"Ley","year":"2020","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Water Res. Technol."},{"key":"ref37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e02634","DOI":"10.1128\/AEM.02634-18","article-title":"Towards quantitative microbiome community profiling using internal standards","volume":"85","author":"Lin","year":"2019","journal-title":"Appl. Environ. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1520","DOI":"10.1038\/s41396-018-0101-5","article-title":"Drinking water microbiome assembly induced by water stagnation","volume":"12","author":"Ling","year":"2018","journal-title":"ISME J."},{"key":"ref39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1502","DOI":"10.1128\/AEM.02125-07","article-title":"Detection of viable but nonculturable Escherichia coli O157: H7 bacteria in drinking water and river water","volume":"74","author":"Liu","year":"2008","journal-title":"Appl. Environ. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"118238","DOI":"10.1016\/j.watres.2022.118238","article-title":"Nationwide biogeography and health implications of bacterial communities in household drinking water","volume":"215","author":"Ma","year":"2022","journal-title":"Water Res."},{"key":"ref41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.14806\/ej.17.1.200","article-title":"Cutadapt removes adapter sequences from high-throughput sequencing reads","volume":"17","author":"Martin","year":"2011","journal-title":"EMBnet.journal"},{"key":"ref42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e61217","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0061217","article-title":"Phyloseq: an R package for reproducible interactive analysis and graphics of microbiome census data","volume":"8","author":"McMurdie","year":"2013","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"ref43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/wat2.1578","article-title":"Applied citizen science in freshwater research","volume":"9","author":"Metcalfe","year":"2022","journal-title":"WIREs Water"},{"year":"2023","key":"ref44","article-title":"Sterivex"},{"key":"ref45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1402","DOI":"10.1002\/wer.1238","article-title":"Detection and occurrence of indicator organisms and pathogens","volume":"91","author":"Motlagh","year":"2019","journal-title":"Water Environ. Res."},{"year":"2021","key":"ref46","article-title":"National Meteorological Center"},{"year":"2016","key":"ref47","article-title":"In-fa National Meteorological Centre - Typhoon 2021"},{"key":"ref48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1286923","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2023.1286923","article-title":"Waterborne pathogens detection technologies: advances, challenges, and future perspectives","volume":"14","author":"Oon","year":"2023","journal-title":"Front. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"51","DOI":"10.1186\/s13568-014-0051-x","article-title":"Contamination of water resources by pathogenic bacteria","volume":"4","author":"Pandey","year":"2014","journal-title":"AMB Express"},{"key":"ref50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"8851","DOI":"10.1021\/es302042t","article-title":"Bacterial community structure in the drinking water microbiome is governed by filtration processes","volume":"46","author":"Pinto","year":"2012","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"146","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biocon.2016.04.010","article-title":"Citizen science and invasive alien species: predicting the detection of the oak processionary moth Thaumetopoea processionea by moth recorders","volume":"208","author":"Pocock","year":"2017","journal-title":"Biol. Conserv."},{"key":"ref52","first-page":"353","article-title":"Computational methods for high-throughput comparative analyses of natural microbial communities","volume-title":"Methods in enzymology","author":"Preheim","year":"2013"},{"key":"ref53","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1038\/s41564-017-0062-x","article-title":"Detecting macroecological patterns in bacterial communities across independent studies of global soils","volume":"3","author":"Ramirez","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref54","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"307","DOI":"10.3390\/pathogens4020307","article-title":"Waterborne pathogens: detection methods and challenges","volume":"4","author":"Ramirez-Castillo","year":"2015","journal-title":"Pathogens"},{"key":"ref55","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2964","DOI":"10.3390\/w15162964","article-title":"Are indicator microorganisms predictive of pathogens in water?","volume":"15","author":"Richiardi","year":"2023","journal-title":"Water"},{"key":"ref56","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2505","DOI":"10.1111\/1462-2920.12739","article-title":"Microbial biogeography of drinking water: patterns in phylogenetic diversity across space and time","volume":"17","author":"Roeselers","year":"2015","journal-title":"Environ. Microbiol."},{"article-title":"Understanding citizen science and environmental monitoring: Final report on behalf of UK environmental observation framework","year":"2012","author":"Roy","key":"ref57"},{"key":"ref58","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"480","DOI":"10.1080\/21505594.2017.1419116","article-title":"Brevundimonas spp: emerging global opportunistic pathogens","volume":"9","author":"Ryan","year":"2018","journal-title":"Virulence"},{"key":"ref59","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"54","DOI":"10.3390\/w14010054","article-title":"The impact of extreme weather events on bacterial communities and opportunistic pathogens in a drinking water treatment plant","volume":"14","author":"Tang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Water"},{"key":"ref60","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"457","DOI":"10.1038\/nature24621","article-title":"A communal catalogue reveals earth's multiscale microbial diversity","volume":"551","author":"Thompson","year":"2017","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref61","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4860","DOI":"10.1016\/j.watres.2010.07.016","article-title":"Effect of water composition, distance and season on the adenosine triphosphate concentration in unchlorinated drinking water in the Netherlands","volume":"44","author":"van der Wielen","year":"2010","journal-title":"Water Res."},{"volume-title":"Bioinformatics explained: BLAST","year":"2007","author":"Vej","key":"ref62"},{"key":"ref63","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"143923","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2020.143923","article-title":"China's drinking water sanitation from 2007 to 2018: a systematic review","volume":"757","author":"Wang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci. Total Environ."},{"key":"ref64","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2249","DOI":"10.3390\/su12062249","article-title":"Microbial indicators and their use for monitoring drinking water quality\u2014a review","volume":"12","author":"Wen","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sustain. For."},{"year":"2017","key":"ref65","article-title":"Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality (Fourth Edition)"},{"key":"ref66","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"218","DOI":"10.1186\/s40168-018-0592-3","article-title":"Citizen science charts two major \"stomatotypes\" in the oral microbiome of adolescents and reveals links with habits and drinking water composition","volume":"6","author":"Willis","year":"2018","journal-title":"Microbiome."},{"key":"ref67","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s42452-019-0533-1","article-title":"Detection of pathogenic bacteria in hot tap water using the qPCR method: preliminary research","volume":"1","author":"Wolf-Baca","year":"2019","journal-title":"SN Appl. Sci."},{"key":"ref68","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"277","DOI":"10.1080\/13504509.2021.2013973","article-title":"Citizen science in China\u2019s water resources monitoring: current status and future prospects","volume":"29","author":"Wu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int. J. Sustain. Dev. World Ecol."},{"key":"ref69","first-page":"84","article-title":"Microbial contamination in drinking water: occurrence, measurement and control","volume":"26","author":"Yu","year":"2012","journal-title":"Bull. Chinese Acad. Sci. BCAS"},{"key":"ref70","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"738","DOI":"10.3724\/SP.J.1003.2013.12113","article-title":"Citizen science: integrating scientific research, ecological conservation and public participation","volume":"21","author":"Zhang","year":"2013","journal-title":"Biodivers. Sci."},{"key":"ref71","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1110","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(10)60062-1","article-title":"Environmental health in China: progress towards clean air and safe water","volume":"375","author":"Zhang","year":"2010","journal-title":"Lancet"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Microbiology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fmicb.2025.1609070\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,4]],"date-time":"2025-08-04T16:07:00Z","timestamp":1754323620000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fmicb.2025.1609070\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,4]]},"references-count":71,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fmicb.2025.1609070"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fmicb.2025.1609070","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-302X"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1664-302X"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,4]]},"article-number":"1609070"}}