Application of DNA source tracking technology to improve evaluation of wastewater quality.

我们将调查尼亚加拉地区目标废水和饮用水地点的水质。为了通过有效的监测来维护公众健康，重要的是要确定污染尼亚加拉流域的粪便污染的潜在来源（废物来源，包括处理计划和污水溢流（CSO））。确定正确的粪便污染源可以指导采取最有针对性和最具成本效益的行动来改善水质。特别重要的是要确定人类污水的任何来源，因为这些粪便污染源通常被认为是对人类健康风险最高的。可能还需要采取补救行动，以改善某些海滩的水质，并解决尼亚加拉关注区流域的有益使用损害问题。传统的水分析将增加新的DNA序列为基础的标记，以确定这两个E。coli和非E.大肠杆菌微生物病原体。利用微生物基因组的序列数据，将鉴定出对不同组的与水有关的微生物病原体具有特异性的新型分子标记，这些分子标记可以区分不同的粪便来源。将通过与传统监测方法和现有的基于DNA的标记进行比较来确定这些标记用于来源追踪目的的性能（即灵敏度和特异性）。该项目预计将产生大量的新的和改进的DNA为基础的标记源跟踪是最适合和验证安大略。这些标记物与高通量DNA测序技术的结合使用将为实时跟踪微生物来源提供全面的信息，这些信息可以适用于当地的水监测。虽然使用DNA诊断并不新鲜，但将基因组序列数据应用于水资源中的微生物污染是新的，其全部潜力尚未实现。这项建议旨在弥补这一差距，并应导致开发有用的水质监测工具，以便在补救行动取决于明确的来源识别的情况下采取行动。

We will investigate water quality at targeted wastewater and drinking water sites in Niagara Region. To maintain public health through effective monitoring, it is important to identify the potential sources of fecal pollution (waste sources including treatment plans and combined sewer overflows (CSOs)) contaminating Niagara watershed. Identification of the correct fecal pollution sources can guide the most targeted and cost-effective actions to remedy water quality. It is particularly important to identify any sources of human sewage, as these fecal pollution sources are generally regarded to present the highest human health risks. Remedial actions may also be needed to improve water quality at some beaches, as well as to address beneficial use impairments at the watershed area of the Niagara Area of Concern. Conventional water analyses will be augmented by new DNA sequence based markers to identify both E. coli as well non-E. coli microbial pathogens in water samples. Using sequence data from microbial genomes, novel molecular markers that are specific for different groups of water-related microbial pathogens, and which can differentiate different fecal sources, will be identified. The performance of these markers (i.e. sensitivity and specificity) for source tracking purposes will be determined by comparison with traditional monitoring methods and existing DNA based markers. This project is expected to yield large numbers of new and improved DNA based markers for source tracking that are best suited and validated for Ontario. The use of these markers in conjunction with high throughput DNA sequence technology will provide comprehensive information for microbial source tracking in real-time that can be adapted for local use in water monitoring. While the use of DNA diagnostics is not novel the application of genomic sequence data for microbial contamination in water resources is new and its full potential has not yet been realized. This proposal is aimed at bridging this gap and should lead to development of useful tools for water quality monitoring in cases where remedial action depends on unequivocal source identification.