Leibniz Research Alliance “Infections’21”: Water as a vector for pathogen transmission
The Leibniz Research Alliance Infections’21 examines modes of pathogen transmission relevant to the 21st century. Within this alliance we investigate water as a vector for pathogen transmission.
| Duration: | since 01/2015 |
| Third-party funded: | yes |
| Involved Department(s): | Dept Wildlife Diseases |
| Leibniz-IZW Project Leader(s): | Alex Greenwood (Dept Wildlife Diseases) |
| Leibniz-IZW Project Team: |
Kristin Mühldorfer, Gayle McEwen, John Galindo (all: Dept Wildlife Diseases) |
| Consortium Partner(s): | Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), German Collection of Mircoorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSZM), Heinrich-Pette-Institut – Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology (HPI), Research Center Borstel – Leibniz Lung Center (FZB) |
| Current Funding Organisation: | Leibniz Strategic Networks |
| Research Foci: | |
| Understanding traits and evolutionary adaptations | |
| Understanding wildlife health and disturbed homeostasis | |
| Understanding the environmental context |
The Leibniz Research Alliance Infections’21 is currently in its second funding period. Fourteen Leibniz Institutes took part in first funding round. The overall project is to examine modes of pathogen transmission relevant to the 21st century. In the first funding round, four Research Groups were developed to investigate different modes of transmission - “human to human”, “air”, “water” and “vector” based transmission.
We were responsible for examining water based transmission together with the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), German Collection of Mircoorganisms, Cell Cultures and Heinrich-Pette-Institut – Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology and Research Center Borstel – Leibniz Lung Center. We examined influenza A persistence in water, waste water microbiomes and potential pathogens as well as the microbiomes of a gradient of water sources from rural lakes to urban water. In the current project phase, we are examining water sources for the presence, diversity and sharing of antimicrobial resistance genes by pathogens.
Selected Publications
Numberger D, Riedel T, McEwen G, Nübel U, Frentrup M, Schober I, Bunk B, Spröer C, Overmann J, Grossart HP, Greenwood AD (2019): Genomic analysis of three Clostridioides difficile isolates from urban water sources. ANAEROBE. doi:10.1016/j.anaerobe.2019.01.002.
Numberger D, Dreier C, Vullioud C, Gabriel G, Grossart HP, Greenwood AD (2019): Recovery of influenza A viruses from lake water and sediments by experimental inoculation. PlOS ONE. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0216880.
Numberger D, Ganzert L, Zoccarato L, Mühldorfer K, Sauer S, Grossart HP, Greenwood AD (2019): Characterization of bacterial communities in wastewater with enhanced taxonomic resolution by full-length 16S rRNA sequencing. SCI REP. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-46015-z.