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Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples

Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013.

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Other Authors: Venter, S.N. (Stephanus Nicolaas)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Venter, S.N. (Stephanus Nicolaas)
author_browse Venter, S.N. (Stephanus Nicolaas)
author_facet Venter, S.N. (Stephanus Nicolaas)
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
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provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/33170 Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples Venter, S.N. (Stephanus Nicolaas) adele.prinsloo86@gmail.com Du Preez, M. Prinsloo, Adele Water Water samples Bacteria Infectious diseases Culture-dependent methods South African hot water springs Solar disinfection Molecular techniques UCTD Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013. Water contains many gastro-intestinal pathogens that could cause infectious diseases. The quality of water is usually measured by making use of various culturedependent methods. These culture-dependent methods are not always accurate as most bacteria are considered viable but not culturable. Molecular based methods and sequencing technologies are able to by-pass the culturing steps, thus being able to detect most bacteria in for example a water sample. The aim of the project was to test various molecular approaches for their suitability to analyse the species abundance of bacterial population in surface water samples, other aquatic environments like the South African hot water springs, and water that has been treated with solar disinfection. Accordingly, various combinations of a number of molecular techniques, including DGGE, pyrosequencing and PhyloChip analysis were tested for their ability to detect the various bacterial populations that are present in various water samples. The ability of the methods to provide information at different taxonomic levels was also investigated. Results showed that all three molecular techniques were able to detect the dominant Phyla in the water samples. The DGGE results were not able to classify the sequences any further than the Phylum level. Pyrosequencing was able to classify the resulting sequences successfully up to Family level. In most cases sequences obtained from the V4-7 region could be used to classify individuals to a lower taxonomic rank. However, even though region V4-7 was able to group more sequences to a lower taxonomic rank, both variable regions V1-3 and V4-7 gave a similar sample distribution. In other words, the same classification was found with both regions but region V4-7 was able to identify more of the same grouping. The PhyloChip was able to reveal the species that were present or absent but was not a good indication of abundance. Both pyrosequencing and PhyloChip analysis was able to reveal a comprehensive bacterial population, however, pyrosequencing was unable to detect bacterial populations that were present in the minority, like the typical water safety indicators, for example, E. coli and other coliforms. PhyloChip analysis was able to detect these pathogens but could only indicate presence / absence. The bacterial population detected by PhyloChip analysis correlated well with the bacterial population that the pyrosequencing results were able to detect. The DGGE technique was able to detect the most dominant Phyla that was also detected by the pyrosequencing and PhyloChip results, but was unable to accurately classify much further. These techniques were also able to identify the bacterial populations that were associated with the South African hot water springs, and although it could identify the populations in solar disinfected water, it was unable to provide information on the exact changes that occurred during treatment as DNA from nonviable cells may still have been amplified during the PCR reaction in spite of PMA treatment. Results from the SODIS experiments also showed that the environmental E. coli isolate’s die-off pattern was slower than that of the K12 isolate even though the initial levels of bacteria were fairly similar. To conclude, these techniques provide detailed information on the overall bacterial diversity of aquatic samples but would at present not be able to replace the more conventional culture-based techniques when analyzing the safety of water for human consumption. gm2014 Microbiology and Plant Pathology MSc Unrestricted 2014-01-28T14:27:12Z 2014-01-28T14:27:12Z 2013-09-06 2013 Dissertation Prinsloo, A 2013, Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples, MSc dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/33170> E13/9/870/gm http://hdl.handle.net/2263/33170 en © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Water
Water samples
Bacteria
Infectious diseases
Culture-dependent methods
South African hot water springs
Solar disinfection
Molecular techniques
UCTD
Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples
title Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples
title_full Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples
title_fullStr Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples
title_full_unstemmed Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples
title_short Molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples
title_sort molecular approaches to determine the bacterial diversity of selected water samples
topic Water
Water samples
Bacteria
Infectious diseases
Culture-dependent methods
South African hot water springs
Solar disinfection
Molecular techniques
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/33170