@article {46698,
	title = {Comprehensive metagenomic insights into a unique mass gathering and bathing event reveals transient influence on a riverine ecosystem},
	journal = {Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety},
	volume = {202},
	year = {2020},
	month = {OCT },
	pages = {110938},
	type = {Article},
	abstract = {<p>The religious mass gathering and bathing can pose a multitude of significant public health challenges and lead to severe alterations in the river microbial ecology. The Pandharpur Wari is an annual pilgrimage of Maharashtra, India, where millions of devotees carry the footprints of the saint-poets and pay their obeisance to Lord Vitthal on the 11th day of moon{\textquoteright}s waxing phase (Ashadi Ekadashi). As a part of the ritual, the engrossed devotees, walk over 250 km, take a first holy dip in a sacred river Indrayani at Alandi and secondly in Bhima River at Pandharpur. The MinION-based shotgun metagenomic approach was employed to examine the impact of spiritual mass bathing on environmental changes (concerning the river microbial community structure and functions); and public health aspects (in terms of changes in the pathogenic potential and antibiotic resistance). The analysis of bathing and post-bathing samples of both the rivers revealed alterations in the alpha and beta diversity, indicating significant spatiotemporal variations in the overall microbial structure and function. Furthermore, the analysis revealed up to 80\% of differences in the abundance of virulence genes between the bathing and post bathing samples. We observed parallel increase of priority skin and enteric pathogens (ranging from 11\% to 80\%) such as Acinetobacter baumannii, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa during the bathing event. Moreover, we observed a significant increase in the antibiotic resistance in the bathing samples of Bhima and Indrayani rivers respectively. Altogether, this is the first comprehensive metagenomic study unravelling the influence of religious mass-bathing on the riverine ecosystem.</p>
},
	keywords = {Antibiotic resistance, Mass bathing, MinION sequencing, Priority pathogens, Virulence genes},
	issn = {0147-6513},
	doi = {10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.110938},
	author = {Yadav, Rakeshkumar and Rajput, Vinay and Gohil, Kushal and Khairnar, Krishna and Dharne, Mahesh}
}
@article {46726,
	title = {Pan-genomics of Ochrobactrum species from clinical and environmental origins reveals distinct populations and possible links},
	journal = {Genomics},
	volume = {112},
	year = {2020},
	month = {SEP},
	pages = {3003-3012},
	type = {Article},
	abstract = {<p>Ochrobactrum genus is comprised of soil-dwelling Gram-negative bacteria mainly reported for bioremediation of toxic compounds. Since last few years, mainly two species of this genus, O. intermedium and O. anthropi were documented for causing infections mostly in the immunocompromised patients. Despite such ubiquitous presence, study of adaptation in various niches is still lacking. Thus, to gain insights into the niche adaptation strategies, pan-genome analysis was carried out by comparing 67 genome sequences belonging to Ochrobactrum species. Pan-genome analysis revealed it is an open pan-genome indicative of the continuously evolving nature of the genus. The presence/absence of gene clusters also illustrated the unique presence of antibiotic efflux transporter genes and type IV secretion system genes in the clinical strains while the genes of solvent resistance and exporter pumps in the environmental strains. A phylogenomic investigation based on 75 core genes depicted better and robust phylogenetic resolution and topology than the 16S rRNA gene. To support the pan-genome analysis, individual genomes were also investigated for the mobile genetic elements (MGE), antibiotic resistance genes (ARG), metal resistance genes (MRG) and virulence factors (VF). The analysis revealed the presence of MGE, ARG, and MRG in all the strains which play an important role in the species evolution which is in agreement with the pan-genome analysis. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) based on the genetic relatedness between the Ochrobactrum species indicated a distinction between individual species. Interestingly, the ANI tool was able to classify the Ochrobactrum genomes to the species level which were assigned till the genus level on the NCBI database.</p>
},
	keywords = {Antibiotic resistance, Average nucleotide identity, Clinical and environmental strains, Core genes, MinION, Virulence factors},
	issn = {0888-7543},
	doi = {10.1016/j.ygeno.2020.04.030},
	author = {Gohil, Kushal and Rajput, Vinay and Dharne, Mahesh}
}
