title: Detection and persistence of fecal Bacteroidales as water quality indicators in unchlorinated drinking water.
abstract: The results of this study support the use of fecal Bacteroidales qPCR as a rapid method to complement traditional, culture-dependent, water quality indicators in systems where drinking water is supplied without chlorination or other forms of disinfection. A SYBR-green based, quantitative PCR assay was developed to determine the concentration of fecal Bacteroidales 16S rRNA gene copies. The persistence of a Bacteroides vulgatus pure culture and fecal Bacteroidales from a wastewater inoculum was determined in unchlorinated drinking water at 10 degrees C. B. vulgatus 16S rRNA gene copies persisted throughout the experimental period (200 days) in sterile drinking water but decayed faster in natural drinking water, indicating that the natural microbiota accelerated decay. In a simulated fecal contamination of unchlorinated drinking water, the decay of fecal Bacteroidales 16S rRNA gene copies was considerably faster than the pure culture but similar to that of Escherichia coli from the same wastewater inoculum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Microbiology, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, Building 1540, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. aaron.saunders@teknologisk.dk
authors.forename: Aaron M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kristiansen
authors.forename: Marie B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.forename: Niels Peter
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Revsbech
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schramm
mesh_terms: D041963:Bacteroidetes / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial / Q000379:methods; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000382:microbiology*; D018628:Gene Dosage; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S