Analysis of the gull fecal microbial community reveals the dominance of Catellicoccus marimammalium in relation to culturable Enterococci.

ABSTRACT: Gulls are prevalent in beach environments and can be a major source of fecal contamination. Gulls have been shown to harbor a high abundance of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), such as Escherichia coli and enterococci, which can be readily detected as part of routine beach monitoring. Despite the ubiquitous presence of gull fecal material in beach environments, the associated microbial community is relatively poorly characterized. We generated comprehensive microbial community profiles of gull fecal samples using Roche 454 and Illumina MiSeq platforms to investigate the composition and variability of the gull fecal microbial community and to measure the proportion of FIB. Enterococcaceae and Enterobacteriaceae were the two most abundant families in our gull samples. Sequence comparisons bet

SUBMITTER: Koskey AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3911088 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature