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

1550093温德尔目前的污染源识别方法侧重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，并居住在多个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，因此不能可靠地追踪污染源，这使得很难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，这是一种新的、具有潜在变革意义的方法，可以对抗饮用水中的粪便污染。这项拟议的工作将PI最近的人类线粒体高变区II来源追踪研究扩展到一个特别独特和重要的生态系统--豪勋爵岛(澳大利亚)的沿海水域。豪勋爵岛被联合国教科文组织列为具有全球自然意义的世界遗产，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。这个采样地点的好处有3个：1)有限的人口应该产生可处理的数量的人类线粒体高变区II序列，使人类废物来源和沿海水污染之间有更离散的联系；2)识别影响的化粪池将使豪勋爵岛资源有限的居民能够以成本效益的方式进行补救；3)豪勋爵岛是一个具有全球意义的生态系统。这项提议的假设是，从受影响的环境水中对人类线粒体DNA进行测序可以确定污染来源并量化污染贡献者。与含糊不清的细菌检测不同，确凿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，可以通过在人类线粒体高变区II区发现的序列信息来实现人类线粒体DNA使能来源的识别，这是一种在刑事法医分析和人类学系统发育学中更常用的方法。

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.