Evaluation of Low-Cost Phage-Based Microbial Source Tracking Tools for Elucidating Human Fecal Contamination Pathways in Kolkata, India.

ABSTRACT: Phages, such as those infecting Bacteroides spp., have been proven to be reliable indicators of human fecal contamination in microbial source tracking (MST) studies, and the efficacy of these MST markers found to vary geographically. This study reports the application and evaluation of candidate MST methods (phages infecting previously isolated B. fragilis strain GB-124, newly isolated Bacteroides strains (K10, K29, and K33) and recently isolated Kluyvera intermedia strain ASH-08), along with non-source specific somatic coliphages (SOMCPH infecting strain WG-5) and indicator bacteria (Escherichia coli) for identifying fecal contamination pathways in Kolkata, India. Source specificity of the phage-based methods was first tested using 60 known non-human fec

SUBMITTER: Kapoor R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8173070 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature