| Title |
Microbial Community Analysis and Identification of Alternative Host-Specific Fecal Indicators in Fecal and River Water Samples Using Pyrosequencing |
| Author |
Ju-Yong Jeong1,2, Hee-Deung Park3, Kyong-Hee Lee1, Hang-Yeon Weon4, and Jong-Ok Ka2* |
| Address |
1Department of Water Quality Research, Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment, Suwon 440-290, Republic of Korea, 2Department of Agricultural Biotechnology and Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea, 3School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea, 4Korean Agricultural Culture Collection (KACC), National Academy of Agricultural Science (NAAS), Rural Development Administration (RDA), Suwon 441-853, Republic of Korea |
| Bibliography |
Journal of Microbiology, 49(4),585-594, 2011,
|
| DOI |
|
| Key Words |
bacteroidales, microbial source tracking, potential fecal indicator, pyrosequencing |
| Abstract |
It is important to know the comprehensive microbial communities of fecal pollution sources and receiving
water bodies for microbial source tracking. Pyrosequencing targeting the V1-V3 hypervariable regions of
the 16S rRNA gene was used to investigate the characteristics of bacterial and Bacteroidales communities
in major fecal sources and river waters. Diversity analysis indicated that cow feces had the highest diversities
in the bacterial and Bacteroidales group followed by the pig sample, with human feces having the lowest
value. The Bacteroidales, one of the potential fecal indicators, totally dominated in the fecal samples accounting
for 31%-52% of bacterial sequences, but much less (0.6%) in the river water. Clustering and Venn diagram
analyses showed that the human sample had a greater similarity to the pig sample in the bacterial and
Bacteroidales communities than to samples from other hosts. Traditional fecal indicators, i.e., Escherichia
coli, were detected in the human and river water samples at very low rates and Clostridium perfringens and
enterococci were not detected in any samples. Besides the Bacteroidales group, some microorganisms detected
in the specific hosts, i.e., Parasutterella excrementihominis, Veillonella sp., Dialister invisus, Megamonas funiformis,
and Ruminococcus lactaris for the human and Lactobacillus amylovorus and Atopostipes sp. for the
pig, could be used as potential host-specific fecal indicators. These microorganisms could be used as multiple
fecal indicators that are not dependent on the absence or presence of a single indicator. Monitoring for
multiple indicators that are highly abundant and host-specific would greatly enhance the effectiveness of
fecal pollution source tracking. |
