Assessment of Genetic Markers for Tracking the Sources of Human Wastewater Associated Escherichia coli in Environmental Waters

Warish Ahmed; Cheryl Triplett; Ryota Gomi; Pradip Gyawali; Leonie Hodgers; Simon Toze

doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b02163

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Assessment of Genetic Markers for Tracking the Sources of Human Wastewater Associated Escherichia coli in Environmental Waters

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Assessment of Genetic Markers for Tracking the Sources of Human Wastewater Associated Escherichia coli in Environmental Waters

Warish Ahmed, Cheryl Triplett, Ryota Gomi, Pradip Gyawali, Leonie Hodgers and Simon Toze

Environmental Science and Technology, Vol.49(15), pp.9341-9346

2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b02163

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Abstract

human wastewater

Escherichia coli (E. coli) genetic markers

environmental waters

In this study, we have evaluated the performance characteristics (host-specificity and -sensitivity) of four human wastewater-associated Escherichia coli (E. coli) genetic markers (H8, H12, H14, and H24) in 10 target (human) and nontarget (cat, cattle, deer, dog, emu, goat, horse, kangaroo, and possum) host groups in Southeast Queensland, Australia. The overall host-sensitivity values of the tested markers in human wastewater samples were 1.0 (all human wastewater samples contained the E. coli genetic markers). The overall host-specificity values of these markers to differentiate between human and animal host groups were 0.94, 0.85, 0.72, and 0.57 for H8, H12, H24, and H14, respectively. Based on the higher host-specificity values, H8 and H12 markers were chosen for a validation environmental study. The prevalence of the H8 and H12 markers was determined among human wastewater E. coli isolates collected from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Among the 97 isolates tested, 44 (45%) and 14 (14%) were positive for the H8 and H12 markers, respectively. A total of 307 E. coli isolates were tested from environmental water samples collected in Brisbane, of which 7% and 20% were also positive for the H8 and H12 markers, respectively. Based on our results, we recommend that these markers could be useful when it is important to identify the source(s) of E. coli (whether they originated from human wastewater or not) in environmental waters.

Details

Title: Assessment of Genetic Markers for Tracking the Sources of Human Wastewater Associated Escherichia coli in Environmental Waters
Authors: Warish Ahmed (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Cheryl Triplett (Author) - Spelman College, United States
Ryota Gomi (Author) - Kyoto University, Japan
Pradip Gyawali (Author) - University of Queensland
Leonie Hodgers (Author) - CSIRO Land and Water
Simon Toze (Author) - University of Queensland
Publication details: Environmental Science and Technology, Vol.49(15), pp.9341-9346
Publisher: American Chemical Society
Date published: 2015
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b02163
ISSN: 0013-936X
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449317502621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences

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