Premium
Isolation and Classification of Bacteriophages in Untreated and Treated Sewage to Test Effectiveness of Water Treatment Methods
Author(s) -
Meuer Katie,
Piefer Andrew,
Allen Mary,
BaloghBrunstad Zsuzsanna
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.575.18
Subject(s) - sewage , isolation (microbiology) , phage therapy , bacteriophage , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , titer , host (biology) , escherichia coli , virology , virus , environmental science , ecology , environmental engineering , gene , biochemistry
The research for this project will focus on studying the differences between the number of bacteriophages and their specificity present in a natural environment sewage sample before and after being processed through the Oneonta, New York wastewater treatment system. Sewage provides an ideal environment for many bacteriophages to grow including those with bacterial hosts Escherichia , Enterobacter , Serratia , and Alcaligenes . Samples of sewage will be collected and enriched with one of the aforementioned hosts, and then filtered to isolate virus. Host and phage combinations will then be used to prepare plaque assays to determine phage titer. The plaques will be harvested and grown again to isolate the specific phage and determine its bacterial host range specificity. Phage classification will be based on DNA isolation and restriction fragment comparison. Data will be submitted to the Mycobacteria Phage Database Project. The same isolation and classification procedure will be followed with post water treatment samples, to measure potential reduction in phage titer and / or changes in host range specificity. This project was funded by the Hartwick College Department of Chemistry.