Novel crAssphage marker genes ascertain sewage pollution in a recreational lake receiving urban stormwater runoff

摘要: Abstract Considerable efforts have been made in recent years developing novel marker genes for fecal pollution tracking environmental waters. CrAssphage are recently discovered DNA bacteriophage that highly abundant human feces and untreated sewage. In this study, we evaluated the host-sensitivity -specificity of newly designed crAssphage qPCR assays ( Stachler et al., 2017 ) CPQ_056 CPQ_064 (i.e., genes) samples collected from various several animal host groups Australia. We also investigated utility these to detect sewage an urban recreational lake Lake Parramatta) Sydney, NSW. The mean concentrations were 9.43 ± 0.14 log10 GC/L 8.91 ± 0.17 log10 GC/L, respectively, 2 3 orders magnitude higher than other sewage-associated viruses used microbial source studies. Among 177 tested 11 species, host-specificity values 0.95 0.93, respectively. Limited cross-reactivity was observed with cat cattle wastewater samples. Abundance markers monitored receives stormwater runoff. both (CPQ_056 ranging 3.40 6.04 2.90 5.47 log10 GC/L) 20 (for CPQ_056) 18 CPQ_064) after storm events gauged sewer overflows compared dry weather event (10 10 negative 8 suggesting transported by runoff Parramatta. results study may provide context management overflow points sewerage system catchment.