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Molecular Characterization of Bacterial Populations in Sandhill Crane Feces
Citation:
RYU, H., B. Iker, J. W. SANTO-DOMINGO, J. Vogel, AND F. Chavez-Ramirez. Molecular Characterization of Bacterial Populations in Sandhill Crane Feces. Presented at American Society for Microbiology 110th General Meeting, San Diego, CA, May 23 - 27, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Sandhill cranes have the potential to be important seasonal sources of waterborne fecal bacteria; however, it is currently not possible to measure the extent of crane fecal pollution in potentially impacted areas as there are no available crane-specific assays. This is in part due to the lack of data on the microbial composition of crane feces. To address this, 389 16S rRNA gene fecal clone sequences were analyzed to determine the identities of crane fecal bacteria. Sequence analysis showed that the crane bacterial community was mostly composed of populations closely related to Bacilli (75%), Bacteriodetes (10%), Fusobacteria (6%), and Gammaproteobacteria (2%). Within the Bacilli, 74 sequences were classified as Lactobacillus, while 212 sequences formed a clade of unclassified Lactobacillales. Most unclassified Lactobacillales were closely related to Catellicoccus marimammalium, an organism previously used as the target of gull-specific assays, suggesting that these sequences might be potential targets for crane-specific assays. The relatively high numbers of Bacteroidetes in crane feces compared to other waterfowl fecal microbial communities also suggested the potential value of Bacteroidetes sequences for host-specific assay development. Bacteroidetes 16S rRNA gene clone libraries (i.e., 851 clones) were also developed for water samples from three locations (upstream, within, and downstream of the crane-roosting area) in the Platte River in Nebraska. Comparison of clone libraries among sampling locations demonstrated a relatively high number of shared operational taxonomic units (OTUs) between samples from within and downstream of crane-roosting areas, while upstream samples contained many unique OTUs. Water samples collected at the same locations three months after cranes migrated out of the region showed relatively low number of Bacteroidetes OTUs, further suggesting that cranes are relevant seasonal contributors of waterborne fecal contamination. All together, these data suggest that 16S rRNA gene sequences are potential targets for the development of assays to track crane fecal pollution.
