Bacterial community composition and activity in urban rivers in Thailand and Malaysia

Abstract

The phylogenetic composition and physiological activity of bacterioplankton communities in two different rivers in Southeast Asian countries, the Kelang River basin in Malaysia and Chao Phraya River in Thailand, which are polluted by untreated or incompletely treated sewage, were analyzed by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and FISH combined with the direct viable count technique (DVC-FISH). The results were also compared with those from temperate zone habitats in eutrophic rivers in Osaka, Japan. FISH detected 56% to 78% of total cells with the probe EUB338 targeted for the domain Bacteria in samples from the Kelang River basin, compared with 14% to 33% in samples from the Chao Phraya River. DVC-FISH with an antibiotic cocktail increased the fraction of bacteria detectable with EUB338 in the Chao Phraya River (72% to 75% of total bacteria), while no appreciable change was found in samples from the Kelang River basin. These results show that in situ physiologic activity of resident bacteria was generally high in the Kelang River basin and low but present in the Chao Phraya River. Bacterial community structures in both rivers were dominated by the beta (5% to 39%) and gamma (4% to 41%) subclasses of Proteobacteria. In river water samples from Osaka, bacterial community structures determined by FISH were dominated by the beta subclass, but those determined by DVC-FISH were dominated by both beta (26% to 39%) and gamma (17% to 47%) subclasses. This result implies that in situ physiological activity of the gamma subclass is low in the eutrophic river in Osaka, but those bacteria have the potential for cell division.