Profile of the Spatial Distribution Patterns of the Human and Bacteriophage Virome in a Wastewater Treatment Plant Located in the South of Spain García Fontana, Cristina Rodríguez-Sánchez, Alejandro Muñoz Palazón, Barbara González Martínez, Alejandro Vela Cano, María González López, Jesús Juan Next-generation sequencing Sewage virome Viral distribution Virus Transmission electron microscopy Wastewater treatment plant The authors would like to acknowledge the support given by the Institute of Water Research of University of Granada and the disposition of Municipal Water Company of Granada (EMASAGRA S.A.) for financial support to carry out the research. In wastewater treatment plants, most microbial characterization has focused on bacterial, archaeal, and fungal populations. Due to the difficult isolation, quantification, and identification of viruses, only a limited number of virome studies associated with wastewater treatment plants have been carried out. However, the virus populations play an important role in the microbial dynamics in wastewater treatment systems and the biosafety of effluents. In this work, the viral members present in influent wastewater, mixed liquor (aerobic bioreactor), excess sludge, and effluent water of a conventional activated sludge system for the treatment of urban wastewater were identified. Viral members were observed by transmission electron microscopy and studied through next-generation sequencing studies. The results showed the dominance of bacteriophages in the viral community in all samples, with the dominant viral phylotype classified as Escherichia coli O157 typing phage 7. Moreover, different human viruses, such as Cynomolgus cytomegalovirus and Gammaherpesvirus, were also detected. 2020-11-13T09:23:44Z 2020-11-13T09:23:44Z 2020-08-18 journal article García-Fontana, C.; Rodriguez-Sanchez, A.; Muñoz-Palazon, B.; Gonzalez-Martinez, A.; Vela-Cano, M.; Gonzalez-Lopez, J. Profile of the Spatial Distribution Patterns of the Human and Bacteriophage Virome in a Wastewater Treatment Plant Located in the South of Spain. Water 2020, 12, 2316. [doi:10.3390/w12082316] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/64250 10.3390/w12082316 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Atribución 3.0 España MDPI