World's Largest Mass Bathing Event Influences the Bacterial Communities of Godavari, a Holy River of India

Gut microbial diversity in Apis cerana indica and Apis florea colonies: a comparative study

Introduction

Honey bee gut microbiota have an important role in host health, nutrition, host-symbiont interaction, and interaction behavior with the surrounding environment. Recent discoveries of strain-level variation, characteristics of protective and nutritional capabilities, and reports of eco-physiological significance to the microbial community have emphasized the importance of honey bee gut microbiota. Many regions of Asia and Africa are inhabited by the dwarf honey bee, Apis florea. Studying its microflora and potential for pollination is therefore of foremost importance.

Methods

In the present investigation, we aimed to explore the gut bacteriobiome composition of two distinct honey bee species, Apis florea and Apis cerana indica using high throughput sequencing. Functional predictions of bee gut bacterial communities using PICRUSt2 was carried out.

Results and discussion

The phylum Proteobacteria dominated the bacterial community in both A. cerana indica (50.1%) and A. florea (86.7%), followed by Firmicutes (26.29 and 12.81%), Bacteroidetes (23.19 and 0.04%) and Actinobacteria (0.4 and 0.02%) respectively. The gut bacteria of A. cerana indica was more diverse than that of A. florea. The observed variations in bacterial genomic diversity among these critical pollinator species may have been influenced by the apiary management techniques, ecological adaptation factors or habitat size. These variations can have a significant effect in understanding host-symbiont interactions and functioning of gut microbiota highlighting the importance of metagenomic survey in understanding microbial community ecology and evolution. This is the first comparative study on variation in bacterial diversity between two Asian honey bees.

Microbial Population Dynamics in Lemnaceae (Duckweed)-Based Wastewater Treatment System

The dynamic microflora associated within, and in the surrounding aquatic environment, has been found to be responsible for the functional properties of many aquatic plants. The aim of the current work was to evaluate the effectiveness of Lemnaceae-based wastewater treatment system under tropical conditions and investigate the changes in the aquatic microflora upon plant growth. A biological wastewater treatment system was designed and investigated using mixed Lemnaceae culture comprising Lemna minor and Spirodela polyrhiza in a batch mode. A significant reduction in total solids (31.8%), biochemical oxygen demand (93.5%), and chemical oxygen demand (73.2%) was observed after seven days of duckweed growth using a low inoculum. A preliminary study on the change in the microbial population diversity and functionality, in the wastewater before and after treatment, revealed an increase in the denitrifying microflora in wastewater post-Lemnaceae treatment. Dominance of 10 bacterial phyla, contributing for 98.3% of the total bacterial communities, was recorded, and ~ 50.6% loss of diversity post-treatment of wastewater was revealed by the Shannon Index. Among 16 bacterial families showing relative abundance of ≥ 1% in untreated wastewater, Methylobacteriaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Brucellaceae, Rhodobacteraceae, and Acetobacteraceae prevailed in the water post-treatment by duckweeds. This is a novel work done on the dynamics of aquatic microflora associated with Lemnaceae under tropical Indian conditions. It confirms the application of Lemnaceae-based wastewater treatment system as effective biofilter and calls for further studies on the active involvement of the endophytic and aquatic microflora in the functions of these plant.

Temporal variation in bacterial community profile on patients' bedsheets in a primary healthcare unit

Fabrics serve as fomites in spreading nosocomial infections. As a patient is in close contact with bedsheets, it is important to assess the seasonal variation in bacterial diversity on these in healthcare units. The study was conducted to characterise the bacterial diversity on patients' bedsheets across 7 months in a primary healthcare unit. Polyester-cotton blend fabric was stitched on bedsheets, and temporal dynamics of bacterial communities was assessed from May to November 2019. qPCR and amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA gene was performed for profiling of bacterial community. Results revealed the dominance of Bacillota followed by Pseudomonadota, and Actinomycetota. A seasonal variation was observed in the bacterial load, with maximum values in June. This indicates the impact of environmental conditions on bacterial abundance and composition on fabrics in healthcare unit. The presence of priority pathogens on the patient bedsheets is a human health concern reiterating the need for season-specific laundering protocol.

Assessment of household water consumption during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional web-based study in India

The fatal novel COVID-19 creates precarious threats to humans through speedy diffusion. This virus not only disrupts human health but also makes multidirectional loss and slowdown of modern earth. Almost all countries strictly imposed lockdown and social distancing norms to prevent the infection of COVID-19 virus. In almost all parts of the world, people are using more water for washing, cleaning, bathing and hand washing practices. As a result, per capita water demand along with expenditure have been significantly increased. The principal objective of this study is to evaluate the household level water consumption status and to improve the water security with management for future. The current study has been conducted among the general population of India to assess household level water consumption through internet E-Surveys Google form from August 18 to September 8, 2020. Around 1850 respondents have sent their comments from different sites (rural and urban areas in various climatic regions) of Indian subcontinent. The results show the tremendous increase of water usage along with electrical consumption and expenditure during COVID-19 pandemic situation. Our results revels that 10%, 15% and 17% of higher water consumption per day in rural, urban and peri-urban residential respectively. We hypothesize that the reasons for the increasing water demand and household consumption per day may be found in changed behavioral routines through bathing, washing clothes, and hand washing practices. This web-based study also suggests that few alternative and dependable management techniques i.e. rain water harvesting can be installed to fight the crisis and for the sustainable future. Subsequently, research and development are highly required for long-term management of water resources or reuse of water.

Gut Bacterial Flora of Open Nested Honeybee, Apis florea

Honeybees are eusocial insects with close interaction with their surrounding environment. Gut microbiota in honeybees play a significant role in host health, biology, and interaction behavior with the surrounding environment. Apis florea, a wild bee, is the most primitive among all honeybees and is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. Previous reports on reared honeybee species provide information on the gut microbiome. No such studies are reported on the gut microbiota of the wild honeybee species. This study aimed at studying the gut microbiome of the wild honeybee species, A. florea. The study reports the analysis and the identification of gut bacteria in the wild honeybee species, A. florea, employing culture-based and culture-independent methods. Cultured bacteria were identified and characterized by MALDI-TOF MS and 16S rRNA sequencing. A comprehensive analysis and identification of non-culturable bacteria were performed by 16S rRNA amplicon next-generation sequencing. This approach splits gut bacteria into four bacterial phyla, four families, and 10 genera in major. The dominant taxa identified in A. florea belonged to the family Enterobacteriaceae (79.47%), Lactobacillaceae (12.75%), Oxalobacteraceae (7.45%), and Nocardiaceae (0.13%). The prevailing bacteria belonged to Enterobacter, Lactobacillus, Escherichia-Shigella, Massilia, Klebsiella, Citrobacter, Pantoea, Serratia, Rhodococcus, and Morganella genera, belonging to phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. This study observed the occurrence of a few bacteria that are not previously reported for their occurrence in other species of the Apis genus, making this investigation highly relevant with regard to the bee microbiome.

Nasopharyngeal microbiome reveals the prevalence of opportunistic pathogens in SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals and their association with host types

The novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is causing a severe global health emergency owing to its highly infectious nature. Although the symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 are well known but its impact on nasopharyngeal microbiome is poorly studied. The present cross-sectional study was intended to understand the perturbation in the nasopharyngeal microbiome composition within the infected (n = 63) and non-infected (n = 26) individuals using 16S rRNA gene based targeted amplicon sequencing and their association with host types and the prevalence of opportunistic pathogens at the stage of infection. The results confirmed that number of OTUs were significantly (p < 0.05) decreased in the SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals in comparison to non-infected individuals. Pairwise Wilcoxon test showed a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the abundance of Proteobacteria in infected individuals compared to non-infected ones and vice-versa for Fusobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Similarity percentage (SIMPER) analysis showed the increment in the abundance of opportunistic pathogens (Haemophilus, Stenotrophomonas, Acinetobacter, Moraxella, Corynebacterium 1, Gemella, Ralstonia, and Pseudomonas) involved in secondary infection. Furthermore, this study highlighted the microbial community structure of individuals within and across the families. In this study, we also performed the assesment of microbiome associated with host types (age and genders) and COVID-19 conditions (symptomatic and asymptomatic). The data suggested that the host types/conditions during the COVID-19 infection are potential factors in enrichment of specific bacterial communities in upper respiratory tract.

A Review of Infectious Diseases Associated with Religious and Nonreligious Rituals

Rituals are an integral part of human life but a wide range of rituals (both religious and non-religious), from self-flagellation to blood brotherhood to ritual sprinkling of holy water, have been associated with transmission of infections. These infections include angiostrongyliasis, anthrax, brucellosis, cholera, COVID-19, cutaneous larva migrans, Ebola, hepatitis viruses, herpes simplex virus, HIV, human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV), kuru, Mycobacterium bovis, Naegleria fowleri meningoencephalitis, orf, rift valley fever, and sporotrichosis. Education and community engagement are important cornerstones in mitigating infectious risks associated with rituals.

Bacterial communities and their bioremediation capabilities in oil-contaminated agricultural soils

Rapid industrialization and development in petrochemical industries have resulted in increased hydrocarbon pollution causing substantial damage to the natural ecosystems including agricultural soils. In the recent, past efforts have been made to treat the contaminated soils using microorganisms by natural processes. Soil bacteria, known for their potential to degrade the soil contaminants, play a vital role in maintaining soil health. In the current study, we observed the influence of hydrocarbon contamination on the physicochemical characteristics and enzymatic activities of the soil. Proteobacteria (30.48%), Actinobacteria (13.91%), and Acidobacteria (12.57%) flourished in the non-contaminated soil whereas contaminated sites were dominated by Proteobacteria (44.02 ± 15.65%). In contrast, the sites experiencing the different degrees of exposure to the hydrocarbon pollution allowed specific augmentation of bacterial taxa (in decreasing order of exposure time), viz. Proteobacteria (60.47%), Firmicutes (32.48%), and Bacteroidetes(13.59%), based on culture-independent approach that suggested their potential role in hydrocarbon degradation as compared to the non-contaminated site. The imputation of metabolic function also supported the positive correlation to the exposure to hydrocarbon pollution, with site 2 being highly abundant for gene families involved in xenobiotics biodegradation. The study provides insights into bacterial community structure with special emphasis on their efficiency to degrade hydrocarbons. The results from the study can help in designing appropriate biodegradation strategies to mitigate the serious problems of oil contamination in agricultural soil.

Easy Access to Antibiotics; Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance and Implementation of One Health Approach in India

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health concern because of its fast spread. India, one of the world's top consumer of antibiotics and second most populated country has its unique constraints of social, cultural and economic strata. The continual self-medication, use of antibiotics for the growth promotion in animals, and accumulation of residual antibiotics in the environment challenge the implementation of AMR containment policy. Hence, the present review attempts to delineate the influence of antibiotics abuse on the human, animal and environmental health under the realm of one health. It was based on the literature search using public databases to highlight the rapid surge in the burden of AMR in India affecting various sectors and/or ecosystems in India. It was found that the irrational and overuse of antibiotics in different sectors have led to the emergence of extended antimicrobial resistance wherein the environment acts as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); completing the cycle of contamination and recontamination. There are efforts by government policy makers to reduce the burden of AMR in the country to reduce the health risks, through the One Health approach. Parallel efforts in educating healthcare professionals, strict legislation for pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies should be prioritize. At the same time surveillance of newly emerged AMR pathogens, prioritising research focusing on AMR, and awareness camps or programs among the local population is critical while addressing the consequences of spared of AMR in India.

Extended Ecological Restoration of Bacterial Communities in the Godavari River During the COVID-19 Lockdown Period: a Spatiotemporal Meta-analysis

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has had major impact on human health worldwide. Whilst national and international COVID-19 lockdown and travel restriction measures have had widespread negative impact on economies and mental health, they may have beneficial effect on the environment, reducing air and water pollution. Mass bathing events (MBE) also known as Kumbh Mela are known to cause perturbations of the ecosystem affecting resilient bacterial populations within water of rivers in India. Lockdowns and travel restrictions provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of minimum anthropogenic activity on the river water ecosystem and changes in bacterial populations including antibiotic-resistant strains. We performed a spatiotemporal meta-analysis of bacterial communities of the Godavari River, India. Targeted metagenomics revealed a 0.87-fold increase in the bacterial diversity during the restricted activity of lockdown. A significant increase in the resilient phyla, viz. Proteobacteria (70.6%), Bacteroidetes (22.5%), Verrucomicrobia (1.8%), Actinobacteria (1.2%) and Cyanobacteria (1.1%), was observed. There was minimal incorporation of allochthonous bacterial communities of human origin. Functional profiling using imputed metagenomics showed reduction in infection and drug resistance genes by - 0.71-fold and - 0.64-fold, respectively. These observations may collectively indicate the positive implications of COVID-19 lockdown measures which restrict MBE, allowing restoration of the river ecosystem and minimise the associated public health risk.

Exploring prevalence of potential pathogens and fecal indicators in geographically distinct river systems through comparative metagenomics

Microbial communities are considered as vital members to reflect the health of a riverine system. Among them, pathogenic and fecal indicators imply health risks involved with potability of river water. The present study explores the diverse microbial communities, distribution pattern of potential pathogens, and fecal indicators between the geographically distinct Himalayan and Peninsular river systems of India. It also inquires into the environmental factors associated with community variance and distribution pattern of microbial indicators. The application of high-throughput amplicon sequencing approach unveiled significant demarcation (p < 0.004, Anosim R = 0.62) of samples suggesting unique microbial diversities in these two river sediments. Random forest analysis revealed Desulfobulbulus, PSB_M_3, and Opitutus in Himalayan, while DA101, Bacillus, and Streptomyces in the Peninsular as significant contributors to develop overall dissimilarity between the river systems. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance and co-occurrence network analysis were used to study the relationships between microbial taxa and environmental factors. Amongst the various studied environmental parameters, pH, K, Ca, Mg, Ba, and Al in the Himalayan and salinity, Na, temperature, and Th in the Peninsular significantly influenced shaping of distinct microbial communities. Furthermore, the potential pathogenic genera, including Flavobacterium, Clostridium, Arcobacter, Pseudomonas, and Bacillus were highly prevalent in both the river systems. Arcobacter, Clostridium, Acinetobacter, Bacteroides, and Caloramator were the prominent fecal indicators in these river systems. Our findings provide salient information about the crucial role and interplay between various environmental factors and anthropogenic influences in framing the microbiome of the distinct river systems in India. Moreover, assessing potential pathogenic and fecal indicators suggest the public health risk associated with untreated sewage discharge into these water sources. The detection of various F/S indicators and potentially pathogenic bacteria in Himalayan and Peninsular river systems emphasize the urgent need for future monitoring and management of major riverine systems in India.

Exploring the allochthonous pollution influence on bacterial community and co-occurrence dynamics of River Ganga water through 16S rRNA-tagged amplicon metagenome

River Ganga is one of the largest and most sacred rivers of India. This river is largely affected by anthropogenic activities causing significant increase in water pollution. The impact of drains discharging polluted water on the bacterial community dynamics in the river remains unexplored. To elucidate this, the targeted 16S rRNA V3-V4 variable region amplicon sequencing and bioinformatic analysis were performed using water from upstream, drain, and downstream of river Ganga. Analysis revealed significant difference in relative abundances of bacterial communities. The increase in bacterial abundance and alpha diversity was detected in the downstream compared to the upstream. Environmental factors were found significantly different between upstream and downstream water. At the phyla level, highly abundant taxa such as Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes, Bacteroidetes, and Verrucomicrobia were observed. Bacterial genera like Prevotella, Bacteroides, Blautia, and Faecalibacterium (fecal indicator) had higher abundance in the downstream site. Network co-occurrence revealed that bacterial communities have a modular profile with reduced interaction in drain and downstream water. The network of co-occurring bacterial communities consists of 283 nodes with edge connectivity of 6900, 7074, and 5294 in upstream, drain, and downstream samples, respectively. Upstream communities exhibited the highest positive interaction followed by the drain and the downstream sites. Additionally, highly abundant pathogenic species such as Acinetobacter baumannii and Prevotella copri were also detected in all samples. This study suggests the drain to be allochthonous pollution vector that significantly contributes to bacterial community enrichment. From the results of this study, it is apparent that the lotic water may be used as the ecological reference to understand and monitor the variations in the bacterial communities and their co-occurrence dynamics in the fresh water ecosystems.

An Aspect of Kumbh Mela Massive Gathering and COVID-19

Purpose of Review

Kumbh Mela, a religious gathering of Hindus held in India, is the largest massive gathering event in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented healthcare crisis in recent times with effects reverberating in all spheres of human lives. India has registered the second highest number of COVID-19 cases. This paper aims to dwell in the religious and social background of Kumbh Mela massive gathering, as well as the ritualistic practices that could potentially entail public health risks in the current situation. It also aims to identify possible preparatory and interventional measures to evade such risks.

Recent Findings

In recent years, the increase in the number of people attending the Kumbh Mela has been phenomenal. Congregants are put up at the holy sites for several days. The sheer number of people assembling at the religious venues poses a great challenge to manage the crowds, to cater to the requirements of basic amenities, and to meet their healthcare needs. Some of the ritualistic practices could heighten the risk for transmission of respiratory pathogens. The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated over the past few months in India. The pandemic is expected to sustain its tempo in India throughout the foreseeable future. Organization of the forthcoming Kumbh Mela needs meticulous planning.

Summary

Kumbh Mela is a Hindu religious gathering at the banks of India’s rivers, held periodically. It witnesses assembly of huge numbers of people and has the potential to amplify the COVID-19 pandemic in India; this could overwhelm the healthcare system.

Contribution of archaea and bacteria in sustaining climate change by oxidizing ammonia and sulfur in an Arctic Fjord

The present study attempts to investigate the microbial communities and their potential to oxidize ammonia and sulfur at different sites of Arctic Fjord by targeted metagenomics. The high throughput sequencing revealed archaeal Thaumarchaeota (79.3%), Crenarchaeota (10.9%), Euryarchaeota (5.4%), and Woesearchaeota (2.9%) across different depths. In contrast, the bacterial communities depict predominance of Proteobacteria (52.6%), which comprises of dominant genera viz. Sulfurovum (11.2%) and Sulfurimonas (6.3%). Characterizing the metabolic potential of microbial communities with prime focus on the ammonia and sulfur cycling revealed the presence of amoABC and narGHYZ/ nxrAB genes encoding key enzymes. The ammonia cycling coupled with an augmentation of members of Nitrosopumilus belonging to the phylum Thaumarcheaota suggests the vital role of archaeal communities. Similarly, the persistence of chemolithoautotrophic members of Sulfurovum and Sulfurimonas along with the anaerobic genera Desulfocapsa and Desulfobulbus harboring SOX (sulfur-oxidation) system indicates the modulatory role of bacterial communities in sulfur cycling.

Comprehensive metagenomic insights into a unique mass gathering and bathing event reveals transient influence on a riverine ecosystem

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'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.

Nutrient and microbial water quality of the upper Ganga River, India: identification of pollution sources

The Ganga River is facing mounting environmental pressures due to rapidly increasing human population, urbanisation, industrialisation and agricultural intensification, resulting in worsening water quality, ecological status and impacts on human health. A combined inorganic chemical, algal and bacterial survey (using flow cytometry and 16S rRNA gene sequencing) along the upper and middle Ganga (from the Himalayan foothills to Kanpur) was conducted under pre-monsoon conditions. The upper Ganga had total phosphorus (TP) and total dissolved nitrogen concentrations of less than 100 μg l^-1 and 1.0 mg l^-1, but water quality declined at Kannauj (TP = 420 μg l^-1) due to major nutrient pollution inputs from human-impacted tributaries (principally the Ramganga and Kali Rivers). The phosphorus and nitrogen loads in these two tributaries and the Yamuna were dominated by soluble reactive phosphorus and ammonium, with high bacterial loads and large numbers of taxa indicative of pathogen and faecal organisms, strongly suggesting sewage pollution sources. The high nutrient concentrations, low flows, warm water and high solar radiation resulted in major algal blooms in the Kali and Ramganga, which greatly impacted the Ganga. Microbial communities were dominated by members of the Phylum Proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes and Cyanobacteria, with communities showing a clear upstream to downstream transition in community composition. To improve the water quality of the middle Ganga, and decrease ecological and human health risks, future mitigation must reduce urban wastewater inputs in the urbanised tributaries of the Ramganga, Kali and Yamuna Rivers.

The Contribution of Wastewater to the Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment: Implications of Mass Gathering Settings

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the major issue posing a serious global health threat. Low- and middle-income countries are likely to be the most affected, both in terms of impact on public health and economic burden. Recent studies highlighted the role of resistance networks on the transmission of AMR organisms, with this network being driven by complex interactions between clinical (e.g., human health, animal husbandry and veterinary medicine) and other components, including environmental factors (e.g., persistence of AMR in wastewater). Many studies have highlighted the role of wastewater as a significant environmental reservoir of AMR as it represents an ideal environment for AMR bacteria (ARB) and antimicrobial resistant genes (ARGs) to persist. Although the treatment process can help in removing or reducing the ARB load, it has limited impact on ARGs. ARGs are not degradable; therefore, they can be spread among microbial communities in the environment through horizontal gene transfer, which is the main resistance mechanism in most Gram-negative bacteria. Here we analysed the recent literature to highlight the contribution of wastewater to the emergence, persistence and transmission of AMR under different settings, particularly those associated with mass gathering events (e.g., Hajj and Kumbh Mela).

Metagenomic insights to understand transient influence of Yamuna River on taxonomic and functional aspects of bacterial and archaeal communities of River Ganges

River confluences are interesting ecosystems to investigate for their microbial community structure and functional potentials. River Ganges is one of the most important and holy river of India with great mythological history and religious significance. The Yamuna River meets Ganges at the Prayagraj (formerly known as Allahabad), India to form a unique confluence. The influence of Yamuna River on taxonomic and functional aspects of microbiome at this confluence and its downstream, remains unexplored. To unveil this dearth, whole metagenome sequencing of the microbial (bacterial and archaeal) community from the sediment samples of December 2017 sampling expedition was executed using high throughput MinION technology. Results revealed differences in the relative abundance of bacterial and archaeal communities across the confluence. Grouped by the confluence, a higher abundance of Proteobacteria and lower abundance of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes was observed for Yamuna River (G15Y) and at immediate downstream of confluence of Ganges (G15DS), as compared to the upstream, confluence, and farther downstream of confluence. A similar trend was observed for archaeal communities with a higher abundance of Euryarchaeota in G15Y and G15DS, indicating Yamuna River's influence. Functional gene(s) analysis revealed the influence of Yamuna River on xenobiotic degradation, resistance to toxic compounds, and antibiotic resistance interceded by the autochthonous microbes at the confluence and succeeding downstream locations. Overall, similar taxonomic and functional profiles of microbial communities before confluence (upstream of Ganges) and farther downstream of confluence, suggested a transient influence of Yamuna River. Our study is significant since it may be foundational basis to understand impact of Yamuna River and also rare event of mass bathing on the microbiome of River Ganges. Further investigation would be required to understand, the underlying cause behind the restoration of microbial profiles post-confluence farther zone, to unravel the rejuvenation aspects of this unique ecosystem.

Mass gatherings medicine: public health issues arising from mass gathering religious and sporting events

Mass gathering events are associated with major public health challenges. The 2014 Lancet Series on the new discipline of mass gatherings medicine was launched at the World Health Assembly of Ministers of Health in Geneva in May, 2014. The Series covered the planning and surveillance systems used to monitor public health risks, public health threats, and experiences of health-care providers from mass gathering events in 2012 and 2013. This follow-up Review focuses on the main public health issues arising from planned mass gathering events held between 2013 and 2018. We highlight public health and research data on transmission of infectious diseases and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, mass casualty incidents, and non-communicable diseases, including thermal disorders. In the events discussed in this Review, the combination of a large influx of people, many from countries with outbreak-prone infectious diseases, with a high degree of crowd interactions imposed substantial burdens on host countries' health systems. The detection and transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in pilgrims attending the Kumbh Mela and the Hajj raise concern of possible globalisation from mass-gathering religious events. Priorities for further investments and opportunities for research into prevention, surveillance, and management of these public health issues are discussed.

SEDE-GPS: socio-economic data enrichment based on GPS information

BACKGROUND

Microbes are essentail components of all ecosystems because they drive many biochemical processes and act as primary producers. In freshwater ecosystems, the biodiversity in and the composition of microbial communities can be used as indicators for environmental quality. Recently, some environmental features have been identified that influence microbial ecosystems. However, the impact of human action on lake microbiomes is not well understood. This is, in part, due to the fact that environmental data is, albeit theoretically accessible, not easily available.

RESULTS

In this work, we present SEDE-GPS, a tool that gathers data that are relevant to the environment of an user-provided GPS coordinate. To this end, it accesses a list of public and corporate databases and aggregates the information in a single file, which can be used for further analysis. To showcase the use of SEDE-GPS, we enriched a lake microbial ecology sequencing dataset with around 18,000 socio-economic, climate, and geographic features. The sources of SEDE-GPS are public databases such as Eurostat, the Climate Data Center, and OpenStreetMap, as well as corporate sources such as Twitter. Using machine learning and feature selection methods, we were able to identify features in the data provided by SEDE-GPS that can be used to predict lake microbiome alpha diversity.

CONCLUSION

The results presented in this study show that SEDE-GPS is a handy and easy-to-use tool for comprehensive data enrichment for studies of ecology and other processes that are affected by environmental features. Furthermore, we present lists of environmental, socio-economic, and climate features that are predictive for microbial biodiversity in lake ecosystems. These lists indicate that human action has a major impact on lake microbiomes. SEDE-GPS and its source code is available for download at http://SEDE-GPS.heiderlab.de.

From the "Madding Crowd" to mass gatherings-religion, sport, culture and public health

Human behavior has long engaged in collective behavior assembling in crowds. The Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land has been recorded since the 4th century, while the Hajj, Islam's great pilgrimage, has existed for fourteen centuries, of which a body of literature devoted to the travelogues of the Hajj has been recorded for over ten centuries. Football is a sport played worldwide by more than 1.5 million teams and in 300,000 clubs. Most however play outside of the officially organized sphere: more than 4 percent of the global population plays football, including 270 million amateur players.

Assembling for specific events is a uniquely human behavior, though the formal study of crowds did not begin until the mid-Twentieth Century. Today Mass Gathering Medicine focuses on the public health challenges to hosting events attended by a large enough number of people, at a specific site, for a defined period of time, likely to strain both the planning and response to the mass gathering of a community, state, or nation. All of us can recall attending a mass gathering, whether it be watching one's favorite rock group in performance or assembling for religious pilgrimage. Certainly, the event itself is transporting and transforming and the unison of behaviors and activities can be enormously enriching, uplifting and overwhelming, just as much as they may be at times dangerous and high risk. This review seeks to draw contrasts and comparisons between sporting gatherings and religious gatherings with a chief focus on Hajj, among the largest of all mass gatherings today. We will find there are some powerful similarities as well as stark differences. Each bequeaths a legacy which can inform the other and, as we make our observations, we join with you and the legions of other investigators who continue to remain fascinated and enthralled by mass gatherings which are among the most beloved and beholden events of modern humanity.