Gene Sequence Identification (GSI) for Determining Sources of E. Coli and Enterococci in Water

Fecal contamination of water is widespread in the United States, and of particular concern to the animal/poultry-agriculture community. Accurate, timely, and cost-effective methods of identifying fecal sources are critical to correcting water contamination problems. Current methods of Bacterial Source Tracking (BST) include a variety of both molecular and non-molecular techniques; however, the regulatory and source tracking communities are clearly moving towards non-library based methods that employ source-specific gene sequences. Such sequences can be the basis of proprietary DNA primers that can be subsequently used as probes, and when coupled with real-time PCR, fast and accurate results without the need for large and expensive known source libraries can be obtained. This project involves developing Gene Sequence Identification (GSI) methodology to determine the sources of E. coli and Enterococci in rural waters. This innovative approach will, if successful, provide significant improvements over current techniques for determining fecal contamination sources in water.