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

我们将在尼亚加拉地区的目标废水和饮用水站点调查水质。为了通过有效监测维护公众健康，必须确定污染尼亚加拉流域的潜在粪便污染源（废物来源，包括处理计划和合流下水道溢流）。确定正确的粪便污染源可以指导采取最具针对性和成本效益的行动来改善水质。特别重要的是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对人类健康构成最大的威胁。可能还需要采取补救行动，以改善一些海滩的水质，并解决尼亚加拉关注区分水岭地区有益使用的障碍问题。传统的水分析将被新的基于DNA序列的标记所增强，以识别大肠杆菌和非大肠杆菌。水样中的大肠杆菌微生物病原体。利用来自微生物基因组的序列数据，将鉴定出针对不同组水相关微生物病原体的新型分子标记，并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在源跟踪目的方面的性能（即灵敏度和特异性）。该项目预计将产生大量新的和改进的基于DNA的标记，用于最适合和验证安大略省的来源跟踪。将这些标记与高通量DNA序列技术结合使用，将为实时跟踪微生物来源提供全面的信息，可用于当地的水监测。虽然DNA诊断的使用并不新颖，但基因组序列数据在水资源微生物污染中的应用是新的，其全部潜力尚未实现。这项建议的目的是弥合这一差距，并应导致在补救行动取决于明确查明水源的情况下发展有用的水质监测工具。

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.