Dynamic changes in the population structure of Escherichia coli in the Yeongsan River basin of South Korea.
Although Escherichia coli has been used as an indicator to examine fecal contamination of aquatic environment, it also has been reported to become naturalized to secondary habitats, including soil, water and beach sand. A total of 2880 E. coli isolates obtained from surface water and sediment samples from the Yeongsan River in 2013 were genotyped by using the horizontal fluorophore-enhanced rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting technique. Although different E. coli genotypic groups were observed between surface water and sediments in the dry season, they were mingled and undifferentiated from each other in the rainy season. This indicates that there are frequent sediment resuspension events in the river basin. Moreover, the genotypic composition of the E. coli population in the Yeongsan River basin changes over months and years, implying that genotypic structure of E. coli populations dynamically fluctuates in the river environment. Consequently, our data suggests that the use of E. coli libraries for fecal source tracking needs to be reassessed to account for the changing structure of riverine E. coli populations.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea.
Jeonghwan
J
Jang
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea.
Doris Y W
DY
Di
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea.
Dukki
D
Han
College of Molecular Life Sciences, Jeju National University, Jeju 63243, Republic of Korea.
Tatsuya
T
Unno
National Institute of Crop Science, Rural Development Administration, Iksan, Jeonbuk 55365, Republic of Korea.
Jeom-Ho
JH
Lee
Department of Soil, Water and Climate, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.
Michael J
MJ
Sadowsky
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea hghur@gist.ac.kr.
Hor-Gil
HG
Hur
D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005838:Genotype; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D056910:Republic of Korea; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D012621:Seasons
Escherichia coli; genotypic alteration; population genetics; rep-PCR; river