TY - JOUR
T1 - CrAssphage as a Potential Human Sewage Marker for Microbial Source Tracking in Southeast Asia
AU - Kongprajug, Akechai
AU - Mongkolsuk, Skorn
AU - Sirikanchana, Kwanrawee
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Chulabhorn Research Institute, Grant No. BT 2017-01. The crAssphage primers used in this study are the subject of a U.S. patent application entitled Cross-Assembly Phage DNA Sequences, Primers and Probes for PCR-based Identification of Human Fecal Pollution Sources (Application Number: 15/530,122) by O.C. Shanks, E. Stachler, and K. Bibby (2016). The U.S. patent grants are effective only within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions. This study is not making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the patented item in the United States. Therefore, the use of these primers in this study is permitted by law.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2019/3/12
Y1 - 2019/3/12
N2 - The human gut bacteriophage crAssphage has been proposed as a human-specific microbial source tracking (MST) marker for impacted water bodies. However, its global use as a human-specific MST marker requires validation in a tropical region. In this study, a crAssphage qPCR marker (CPQ-056) was detected in 21 sewage samples in Thailand with 100% sensitivity. The marker was detected in sewage from hospitals and residential buildings at 5.28-7.38 log 10 copies/100 mL and in four influent and four effluent samples of municipal wastewater treatment plants at 4.23-6.19 and 3.78-4.89 log 10 copies/100 mL, respectively. Furthermore, a 99.2% specificity (n = 127) was observed using feces from swine, cattle, chicken, duck, goat, sheep, buffalo, and fish, with cross-detection only occurring for one composite swine sample. The crAssphage marker was present in 56.25% (27 out of 48) of river samples at 3.20-7.29 log 10 copies/100 mL. The concentrations of the crAssphage marker and a prevalidated human-specific Bacteroidales marker (HF183/BFDrev) did not differ significantly in any of the sewage or wastewater samples, whereas the crAssphage marker abundance was higher in river samples. This initial validation of the crAssphage gene as a human-specific MST marker in Southeast Asia will promote its inclusion in an MST toolbox.
AB - The human gut bacteriophage crAssphage has been proposed as a human-specific microbial source tracking (MST) marker for impacted water bodies. However, its global use as a human-specific MST marker requires validation in a tropical region. In this study, a crAssphage qPCR marker (CPQ-056) was detected in 21 sewage samples in Thailand with 100% sensitivity. The marker was detected in sewage from hospitals and residential buildings at 5.28-7.38 log 10 copies/100 mL and in four influent and four effluent samples of municipal wastewater treatment plants at 4.23-6.19 and 3.78-4.89 log 10 copies/100 mL, respectively. Furthermore, a 99.2% specificity (n = 127) was observed using feces from swine, cattle, chicken, duck, goat, sheep, buffalo, and fish, with cross-detection only occurring for one composite swine sample. The crAssphage marker was present in 56.25% (27 out of 48) of river samples at 3.20-7.29 log 10 copies/100 mL. The concentrations of the crAssphage marker and a prevalidated human-specific Bacteroidales marker (HF183/BFDrev) did not differ significantly in any of the sewage or wastewater samples, whereas the crAssphage marker abundance was higher in river samples. This initial validation of the crAssphage gene as a human-specific MST marker in Southeast Asia will promote its inclusion in an MST toolbox.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062330446&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.estlett.9b00041
DO - 10.1021/acs.estlett.9b00041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85062330446
SN - 2328-8930
VL - 6
SP - 156
EP - 164
JO - Environmental Science and Technology Letters
JF - Environmental Science and Technology Letters
IS - 3
ER -