Journal article
Phenotypic variations of enterococci in surface waters: analysis of biochemical fingerprinting data from multi-catchments
Journal of Applied Microbiology, Vol.105(2), pp.452-458
2008
Abstract
Aims: The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of environmentally adapted enterococci strains by analysing biochemical fingerprinting (BF) data of 3952 enterococci isolates collected over 5 years from the six catchments in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Methods and Results: A BF method was used to type 3952 enterococci isolates from six catchments. The environmental isolates were compared with a large existing BF library comprised of 5803 enterococci isolates from 10 host groups. Environmental isolates belonged to 801 biochemical phenotypes (BPTs), of which, an average of 29.2% was specific to each catchment. When compared with the BF library, an average of 79·5% BPTs from each catchment was identical to those in the library (i.e. host-origin BPTs). The remaining 20·5% was regarded as non-host origin BPTs, as they were not in the library and constituted only 5·3% of the total isolates tested for each catchment. Conclusions: Our data suggest that less than 5% of studied environmental strains was not identical to those in the library and seemed to be of environmental origin. From a microbial source tracking context, such low level of environmentally adapted strains can have a minimal impact on the performance of the library-based methods if a large number of isolates were tested from both the host groups and environmental waters. Significance and Impact of the Study: These data shed light on the importance of the size and representativeness of library–based source-tracking methods and their implications for the identification of faecal pollution in environmental waters.
Details
- Title
- Phenotypic variations of enterococci in surface waters: analysis of biochemical fingerprinting data from multi-catchments
- Authors
- Warish Ahmed (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health and EducationMohammad Katouli (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health and Education
- Publication details
- Journal of Applied Microbiology, Vol.105(2), pp.452-458
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- Date published
- 2008
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1365-2672.2008.03763.x
- ISSN
- 1364-5072
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; GeneCology Research Centre - Legacy; School of Health and Sport Sciences - Legacy; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449926702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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