title: Clustering of water bodies in unpolluted and polluted environments based on Escherichia coli phylogroup abundance using a simple interaction database.
abstract: Different types of water bodies, including lakes, streams, and coastal marine waters, are often susceptible to fecal contamination from a range of point and nonpoint sources, and have been evaluated using fecal indicator microorganisms. The most commonly used fecal indicator is Escherichia coli, but traditional cultivation methods do not allow discrimination of the source of pollution. The use of triplex PCR offers an approach that is fast and inexpensive, and here enabled the identification of phylogroups. The phylogenetic distribution of E. coli subgroups isolated from water samples revealed higher frequencies of subgroups A1 and B23 in rivers impacted by human pollution sources, while subgroups D1 and D2 were associated with pristine sites, and subgroup B1 with domesticated animal sources, suggesting their use as a first screening for pollution source identification. A simple classification is also proposed based on phylogenetic subgroup distribution using the w-clique metric, enabling differentiation of polluted and unpolluted sites.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética , Universidade Estadual de Campinas , Campinas, SP , Brazil . ; Núcleo de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade e Computação , Universidade de São Paulo , São Paulo, SP , Brazil .
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: de Castro Stoppe
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade e Computação , Universidade de São Paulo , São Paulo, SP , Brazil . ; Instituto Federal de Educação , Ciência e Tecnologia de Mato Grosso , Cuiabá, MT , Brazil .
authors.forename: Juliana Saragiotto
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade e Computação , Universidade de São Paulo , São Paulo, SP , Brazil . ; Departamento de Genética e Biologia Evolutiva , Instituto de Biociências , Universidade de São Paulo , São Paulo, SP , Brazil .
authors.forename: Tatiana Teixeira
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética , Universidade Estadual de Campinas , Campinas, SP , Brazil .
authors.forename: Camila
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carlos
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Análises Ambientais , Companhia de Tecnologia de Saneamento Ambiental , São Paulo, SP , Brazil .
authors.forename: Elayse Maria
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Hachich
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Análises Ambientais , Companhia de Tecnologia de Saneamento Ambiental , São Paulo, SP , Brazil .
authors.forename: Maria Inês Zanoli
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade e Computação , Universidade de São Paulo , São Paulo, SP , Brazil . ; Departamento de Engenharia de Computação e Sistemas Digitais , Escola Politécnica , Universidade de São Paulo , São Paulo, SP , Brazil .
authors.forename: Antonio Mauro
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Saraiva
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética , Universidade Estadual de Campinas , Campinas, SP , Brazil .
authors.forename: Laura Maria Mariscal
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Ottoboni
keywords: E. coli; interaction networks; phylogenetic groups; pollution sources; social network analysis