Investigation of Amoeba and Associated Microbial Communities from Different Water Sources: Characterization, Interactions and Effects
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water and One Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 196
Special Issue Editors
Interests: drinking water distribution microbiology; biofilm; amoebae; managed aquifer recharge; microbial ecology; microbial community analysis; metabolomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Most water studies focus on the bacterial component and not on the eukaryotes in the microbiome. While free-living amoebae (FLAs) make up a large component, however, of the role of the microbial ecology, microbial interactions and abiotic factors in aiding FLAs’ presence, their persistence and capacity for disease in water systems is not well-understood. Pathogenic and non-pathogenic FLAs are present globally in water systems. Pathogenic FLAs have a direct role in human diseases such as Naegleria fowleri in primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), Acanthamoeba in Acanthamoeba Keratitis (AK) and Acanthamoeba and Balamuthia in granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE). Both pathogenic and non-pathogenic FLAs can also influence the pathogenicity of bacteria as well as aide the presence and persistence of amoebae-resistant bacterial pathogens such as Legionella, Chlamydia, Shigella and non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM). An improved understanding of FLAs’ diversity, FLA–bacteria ecology and interactions, as well as FLA–FLA ecology and interactions may help with better management of water systems to reduce potential negative human health outcomes.
This Special Issue aims to provide further understanding of the interactions between FLAs and the associated microbial ecology in water systems. We invite research addressing the following areas of interest:
- Understanding potential organisms supporting FLAs’ presence;
- Interactions of FLAs with the surrounding microbes;
- Potential impacts on FLA–microbial ecology interactions due to climate change;
- New methods to detect and identify the diversity of FLAs in both natural and engineered water systems.
The Guest Editors encourage the application of new omics-based methods to characterise FLA–microbial interactions. The submitted works should provide improved insights to better-elucidate the complex interactions of FLAs in water systems.
Dr. Geoffrey J. Puzon
Dr. Tom Kieran Walsh
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- amoebae
- Naegleria
- Acanthamoeba
- Vermamoeba
- biofilm
- water
- microbial ecology
