EAGER: Anthropogenic Impact Assessment in Environmental Water with Human Hyper-Variable Region Mitochondrial DNA

当前的污染源识别方法集中于追踪与人类肠道相关的细菌，但这些细菌指示物中的许多也在环境中茁壮成长，并存在于多种其他哺乳动物宿主中。现在人们普遍认为，由于大肠菌群能够在环境中长时间存活，因此无法可靠地追踪污染源，从而难以区分污染事件的来源或时间。该项目提出了一种通过人类线粒体高变区II DNA进行精确来源识别的新方法，这是对抗饮用水中粪便污染的一种新的且可能具有变革性的方法。这项拟议的工作将PI最近的人类线粒体高变区II源跟踪研究扩展到一个特别独特和重要的生态系统，即豪勋爵岛（澳大利亚）的沿海沃茨。豪勋爵岛被联合国教科文组织列为世界遗产，具有全球自然意义，人口相对较少（不到1000人），计划对老化的化粪池废水基础设施进行翻新。这个采样位置的好处有三个方面：1）有限的人口应该产生易于处理的人类线粒体高变区II序列，使得人类废物源和沿海水污染之间的联系更加离散，2）识别影响化粪池将使得豪勋爵岛的资源有限的居民能够进行成本有效的补救，以及，3）豪勋爵岛是一个具有全球意义的生态系统。该提案的假设是，从受影响的环境水中测序人类线粒体DNA可以确定污染来源并量化污染贡献者。与模糊的细菌检测不同，结论性的来源将有助于减少与废物相关的来源和健康风险。也就是说，人类线粒体DNA使能的来源鉴定可以通过在人类线粒体高变区II区域中发现的序列信息来实现，这是一种更常用于刑事法医分析和人类学遗传学的方法。

1550093WendellCurrent pollution source identification methods focus on tracking bacteria associated with the human gut, but many of these bacterial indicators also thrive in the environment and reside in multiple other mammalian hosts. It is now widely accepted that coliform bacteria are unreliable for source tracking due to their ability to survive for extended periods of time in the environment, making it difficult to distinguish the source or timing of a contamination event. This project proposes a new approach for precise source identification through human mitochondrial hypervariable region II DNA which is a new and potentially transformative approach to combating fecal contamination in drinking water. The proposed work extends the PI's recent human mitochondrial hypervariable region II source tracking study to a particularly unique and important ecosystem the coastal waters of Lord Howe Island (Australia). Lord Howe Island is recorded as a UNESCO world heritage site of global natural significance with a relatively small population (less than 1000) and is slated to undergo renovations to an aging septic wastewater infrastructure. The benefits of this sampling location are 3 fold: 1) a limited population should produce a tractable number of human mitochondrial hypervariable region II sequences, enabling a more discrete linkage between human waste source and coastal water contamination, 2) identifying impacting septic tanks will enable cost effective remediation for resource limited residents of Lord Howe Island, and, 3) Lord Howe Island is an ecosystem of global significance. The hypothesis of this proposal is that sequencing human mitochondrial DNA from impacted environmental water can definitively source and quantify pollution contributors. Unlike ambiguous bacterial assays, conclusive sourcing will enable mitigation of waste related sources and health risks. That is, human mitochondrial DNA enabled source identification can be achieved through sequence information found in the human mitochondrial hypervariable region II region, an approach more commonly used in criminal forensic analysis and anthropologic phylogenetics.