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MICROBIAL SOURCE TRACKING: DIFFERENT USES AND APPROACHES
Citation:
SANTO-DOMINGO, J. W. MICROBIAL SOURCE TRACKING: DIFFERENT USES AND APPROACHES. Presented at Tribal Science Council Meeting, Chicago, IL, April 03 - 05, 2007.
Description:
Microbial Source Tracking (MST) methods are used to determine the origin of fecal pollution impacting natural water systems. Several methods require the isolation of pure cultures in order to develop phenotypic or genotypic fingerprint libraries of both source and water bacterial strains. The latter methods are time consuming and technically demanding due to the need of relatively large fingerprint databases. Library independent methods (LIMs) have also been suggested as a viable alternative to MST methods. Most LIMs are rapid, sensitive, aimed at well defined targets, and are amenable to automated analysis. However, there are some limitations associated with these methods that stakeholders need to be aware of. In this seminar, the benefits, limitations, costs, personnel required, and types of applications related to MST methods will be discussed.