4.7 Review

Discovering new indicators of fecal pollution

Journal

TRENDS IN MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 22, Issue 12, Pages 697-706

Publisher

ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2014.08.002

Keywords

sewage; fecal indicators; alternative indicators; water quality; next-generation sequencing; microbial communities; oligotyping

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Fecal pollution indicators are essential to identify and remediate contamination sources and protect public health. Historically, easily cultured facultative anaerobes such as fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, or enterococci have been used but these indicators generally provide no information as to their source. More recently, molecular methods have targeted fecal anaerobes, which are much more abundant in humans and other mammals, and some strains appear to be associated with particular host sources. Next-generation sequencing and microbiome studies have created an unprecedented inventory of microbial communities associated with fecal sources, allowing reexamination of which taxonomic groups are best suited as informative indicators. The use of new computational methods, such as oligotyping coupled with well-established machine learning approaches, is providing new insights into patterns of host association. In this review we examine the basis for host-specificity and the rationale for using 16S rRNA gene targets for alternative indicators and highlight two taxonomic groups, Bacteroidales and Lachnospiraceae, which are rich in host-specific bacterial organisms. Finally, we discuss considerations for using alternative indicators for water quality assessments with a particular focus on detecting human sewage sources of contamination.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available