Publications by authors named "Nathan L R Williams"

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are increasingly being found in aquatic environments, representing a potential threat to public health. To examine the dynamics and potential sources of antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) in urbanised waterways, we performed a six-month temporal study at six locations within the Sydney Harbour estuary. These locations spanned a salinity gradient from seawater at the mouth of the harbour to freshwater at the more urbanised western sites.

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Intermittently closed and opened lakes and lagoons (ICOLLs) provide important ecosystem services, including food provision and nutrient cycling. These ecosystems generally experience low watershed outflow, resulting in substantial fluctuations in physicochemical parameters that are often compounded by anthropogenic contamination, however, how this impacts the patterns in microbiology within these environments remains uncharacterised. Therefore, we aimed to determine how seasonal heterogeneity in the physicochemical parameters, in comparison to faecal contamination, alter the dynamics of bacterial communities inhabiting ICOLLs on the eastern Australian coast.

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Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic free-living heterotrophic protist that is the most predominant amoeba in diverse ecological habitats. Acanthamoeba causes amoebic keratitis (AK), a painful and potentially blinding corneal infection. Major risk factors for AK have been linked to non-optimal contact lens hygiene practices and Acanthamoeba contamination of domestic and recreational water.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Research has shown that fish, like Pelates sexlineatus, exhibit changes in gut microbial communities under thermal stress, leading to a state of dysbiosis and a surge in opportunistic pathogens like Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae.
  • * This study highlights the potential impact of rising sea temperatures on wild fish populations, suggesting that warming could increase pathogen prevalence, affecting fish health and their adaptations to future environmental changes.
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Article Synopsis
  • Anthropogenic waste, especially from sewage, significantly contributes to the spread of antibiotic-resistant microbes in the environment, posing health risks to the public.
  • A study at a swimming beach in Australia during a significant rain event (40.8 mm) revealed that levels of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and fecal bacteria increased dramatically due to contamination, particularly near stormwater drains and a lagoon.
  • The presence of specific ARGs along with human pathogens from stormwater drains indicates a potential health risk for beachgoers, especially after rainfall events that alter water quality.
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Urbanised beaches are regularly impacted by faecal pollution, but management actions to resolve the causes of contamination are often obfuscated by the inability of standard Faecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB) analyses to discriminate sources of faecal material or detect other microbial hazards, including antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). We aimed to determine the causes, spatial extent, and point sources of faecal contamination within Rose Bay, a highly urbanised beach within Sydney, Australia's largest city, using molecular microbiological approaches. Sampling was performed across a network of transects originating at 9 stormwater drains located on Rose Bay beach over the course of a significant (67.

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Oyster diseases are a major impediment to the profitability and growth of the oyster aquaculture industry. In recent years, geographically widespread outbreaks of disease caused by ostreid herpesvirus-1 microvariant (OsHV-1 μvar) have led to mass mortalities among , the Pacific Oyster. Attempts to minimize the impact of this disease have been largely focused on breeding programs, and although these have shown some success in producing oyster families with reduced mortality, the mechanism(s) behind this protection is poorly understood.

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