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Paruch AM, Paruch L. Current status of microbial source tracking applications in constructed wetlands serving as nature-based solutions for water management and wastewater treatment. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2024; 351:124076. [PMID: 38685556 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2024] [Revised: 04/15/2024] [Accepted: 04/27/2024] [Indexed: 05/02/2024]
Abstract
Microbial source tracking (MST) has been recognised as an effective tool for determining the origins and sources of faecal contamination in various terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Thus, it has been widely applied in environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys to define specific animal- and human-associated faecal eDNA. In this context, identification of and differentiation between anthropogenic and zoogenic faecal pollution origins and sources are pivotal for the evaluation of waterborne microbial contamination transport and the associated human, animal, and environmental health risks. These concerns are particularly pertinent to diverse nature-based solutions (NBS) that are being applied specifically to secure water safety and human and ecosystem well-being, for example, constructed wetlands (CWs) for water and wastewater treatment. The research in this area has undergone a constant evolution, and there is a solid foundation of publications available across the world. Hence, there is an early opportunity to synthesise valuable information and relevant knowledge on this specific topic, which will greatly benefit future work by improving NBS design and performance. By selecting 15 representative research reports published over 20 years, we review the current state of MST technology applied for faecal-associated contamination measures in NBS/CWs throughout the world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam M Paruch
- Division of Environment and Natural Resources, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research-NIBIO, Oluf Thesens vei 43, 1433, Ås, Norway.
| | - Lisa Paruch
- Division of Environment and Natural Resources, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research-NIBIO, Oluf Thesens vei 43, 1433, Ås, Norway
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Liu Z, Yuan J, Lin Y, Lin F, Liu B, Yin Q, He K, Zhao X, Lu H. Integrating fecal pollution markers and fluorescence analysis for water quality assessment of urban river. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 909:168492. [PMID: 37967636 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2023] [Revised: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/17/2023]
Abstract
Human fecal contamination in urban rivers poses significant health risks, but their potential connections with other substances like dissolved organic matter (DOM) remain underexplored. In this study, five fecal pollution markers related to fecal Bacteroides or human fecal contamination (AllBac, HF183, BacH, Hum2, and Hum163) and DOM along an urban river were analyzed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and three-dimensional excitation-emission (3D EEM) fluorescence spectrometry. All five markers were detected with average absolute abundance ranging from 2.51 to 6.28 lg gene copies/100 mL, showing a progressive increase along the river (R2 = 0.29-0.92, p < 0.05). Parallel factor analysis identified three dominant DOM components (humic acid-like, fulvic acid-like, and protein-like), with strong positive correlations between protein-like components and all fecal markers (R2 = 0.59-0.66, p < 0.001). Both fecal and DOM distributions consistently showed significant differences between upstream and downstream areas (p < 0.001), suggesting their complementary assessment. While DOM was more sensitive to environmental variables such as rainfall, rubber dam, and tidal dynamic, the combination of fecal pollution markers and 3D EEM analysis allowed a more comprehensive assessment of contamination levels, mitigating potential biases caused by the influence of multiple factors on a single method. Furthermore, due to the strong correlation between protein-like and fecal markers in the DOM, 3D EEM can be used as a pre-detection means for qPCR detection, reducing testing time and costs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zejun Liu
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China; Key Laboratory of Water Security Guarantee in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Marco Greater Bay Area of Ministry of Water Resources, Zhuhai 519082, China
| | - Jinlong Yuan
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China; Key Laboratory of Water Security Guarantee in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Marco Greater Bay Area of Ministry of Water Resources, Zhuhai 519082, China
| | - Yingying Lin
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
| | - Feng Lin
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
| | - Bingjun Liu
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
| | - Qidong Yin
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China.
| | - Kai He
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China; Key Laboratory of Water Security Guarantee in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Marco Greater Bay Area of Ministry of Water Resources, Zhuhai 519082, China.
| | - Xinfeng Zhao
- Zhuhai Ecological Environment Monitoring Station of Guangdong Province, Zhuhai 519070, China
| | - Haoxian Lu
- Marine Biological Resources Bank, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Zhuhai 519082, China
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Liu Z, Lin Y, Ge Y, Zhu Z, Yuan J, Yin Q, Liu B, He K, Hu M. Meta-analysis of microbial source tracking for the identification of fecal contamination in aquatic environments based on data-mining. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 345:118800. [PMID: 37591102 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Revised: 07/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/10/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023]
Abstract
Microbial source tracking (MST) technology represents an innovative approach employed to trace fecal contamination in environmental water systems. The performance of primers may be affected by amplification techniques, target primer categories, and regional differences. To investigate the influence of these factors on primer recognition performance, a meta-analysis was conducted on the application of MST in water environments using three databases: Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed (n = 2291). After data screening, 46 studies were included in the final analysis. The investigation encompassed Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)/quantitative PCR (qPCR) methodologies, dye-based (SYBR)/probe-based (TaqMan) techniques, and geographical differences of a human host-specific (HF183) primer and other 21 additional primers. The results indicated that the primers analyzed were capable of differentiating host specificity to a certain degree. Nonetheless, by comparing sensitivity and specificity outcomes, it was observed that virus-based primers exhibited superior specificity and recognition capacity, as well as a stronger correlation with human pathogenicity in water environments compared to bacteria-based primers. This finding highlights an important direction for future advancements. Moreover, within the same category, qPCR did not demonstrate significant benefits over conventional PCR amplification methods. In comparing dye-based and probe-based techniques, it was revealed that the probe-based method's advantage lay primarily in specificity, which may be associated with the increased propensity of dye-based methods to produce false positives. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of the HF183 primer was not detected in China, Canada, and Singapore respectively, indicating a low likelihood of regional differences. The variation among the 21 other primers may be attributable to regional differences, sample sources, detection techniques, or alternative factors. Finally, we identified that economic factors, climatic conditions, and geographical distribution significantly influence primer performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zejun Liu
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510070, China
| | - Yingying Lin
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China
| | - Yanhong Ge
- Guangdong Infore Technology Co., Ltd, Foshan, 528322, China
| | - Ziyue Zhu
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China
| | - Jinlong Yuan
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China
| | - Qidong Yin
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China
| | - Bingjun Liu
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China
| | - Kai He
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China.
| | - Maochuan Hu
- School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510070, China.
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Prakash S, Mishra AK. Rapid and sensitive naked eye detection of faecal pigments using their enhanced solid-state green fluorescence on a zinc acetate substrate. ANALYTICAL METHODS : ADVANCING METHODS AND APPLICATIONS 2022; 14:2907-2912. [PMID: 35861373 DOI: 10.1039/d2ay00878e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The identification of trace faecal pigments in real-time and on-site detection remains a challenge for water quality monitoring. Herein, a simple, low-cost and rapid fluorescence-based analytical method has been developed in a solid matrix for faecal pigments like stercobilin and urobilin detection. This was made possible due to significant enhancement of green solid-state fluorescence (520 nm) by zinc(II) complexation with faecal pigments embedded in the surface of zinc acetate crystals. It enables naked-eye detection of these pigments even at a 10 μM level when excited with 365 nm blue-UV. It was demonstrated that easily available white cellulose paper strips or TLC silica plates coated with zinc acetate can be used as substrates. A photophysical study of solid-state faecal pigments-zinc(II) complexes suggests that green fluorescence enhancement results from the complexation, which can be attributed to the substantial decrease of the non-radiative decay rate (knr) as well as more efficient use of excitation light. The observation of reduced interference of humic acid fluorescence makes faecal pigment detection more efficient by this proposed method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swayam Prakash
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036, India.
| | - Ashok Kumar Mishra
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036, India.
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An Overview of Microbial Source Tracking Using Host-Specific Genetic Markers to Identify Origins of Fecal Contamination in Different Water Environments. WATER 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/w14111809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Fecal contamination of water constitutes a serious health risk to humans and environmental ecosystems. This is mainly due to the fact that fecal material carries a variety of enteropathogens, which can enter and circulate in water bodies through fecal pollution. In this respect, the prompt identification of the polluting source(s) is pivotal to guiding appropriate target-specific remediation actions. Notably, microbial source tracking (MST) is widely applied to determine the host origin(s) contributing to fecal water pollution through the identification of zoogenic and/or anthropogenic sources of fecal environmental DNA (eDNA). A wide array of host-associated molecular markers have been developed and exploited for polluting source attribution in various aquatic ecosystems. This review is intended to provide the most up-to-date overview of genetic marker-based MST studies carried out in different water types, such as freshwaters (including surface and groundwaters) and seawaters (from coasts, beaches, lagoons, and estuaries), as well as drinking water systems. Focusing on the latest scientific progress/achievements, this work aims to gain updated knowledge on the applicability and robustness of using MST for water quality surveillance. Moreover, it also provides a future perspective on advancing MST applications for environmental research.
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