Metagenomics of Bacterial Injection Systems in Wastewater
Primary Classification:
10203: Bioinformatics (Computational Biology) (Applications at 10610)
Secondary Classification:
10609: Genetics and Genomics (Medical aspects at 30107 and agricultural at 40402)
Tertiary Classification:
10203: Bioinformatics (Computational Biology) (Applications at 10610)
Allocation
Abstract
This student-led project, conducted by Victor Oladeji Betiku, will continue the development and application of Patholon-nf, a reproducible Nextflow workflow for metagenomic characterization and antimicrobial-resistance surveillance in wastewater. The previous NAISS allocation enabled development of the workflow, analysis of a public Oxford Nanopore wastewater dataset, release of the software as an open-source resource and submission of a methods manuscript to Bioinformatics.
During the continuation period, we will apply the workflow to additional Swedish wastewater Oxford Nanopore datasets generated in collaboration with Anna Székely at SLU Uppsala and sequencing facilities at the Uppsala Genome Center and National Genomics Infrastructure. The analyses will include read quality control, preprocessing, de novo assembly, assembly assessment, gene annotation, taxonomic classification, antimicrobial-resistance gene detection, plasmid and virulence-factor screening, protein-domain searches and consolidated reporting.
We will further investigate phage-related and extracellular contractile injection-system features through read mapping, multiple-sequence alignment, phylogenetic classification, gene clustering and synteny analysis. The project will validate the workflow across independent wastewater datasets and generate the results required for a second research manuscript. The expected outcomes are a documented and reusable computational workflow, comparative characterization of bacterial injection-system diversity, and improved understanding of antimicrobial-resistance and mobile genetic elements in wastewater microbiomes.