Characterisation and UV inactivation of bacteriophages infecting human-specific Bacteroides strain GB-124

Abstract

The pathogens contained in human faecal material can present a significant risk to human health, when discharged into surface waters. A recently isolated strain of Bacteroides spp., (GB-124) has shown good ability to detect viruses (phages) in waters exclusively contaminated by human faecal material, with widespread geographical applicability, proving a low-cost microbial source tracking tool (MST). However, little is known about the morphology, ecology and inactivation of phages capable of infecting strain GB-124 during UV-B (representing the primary germicidal portion of sunlight) and UV-C radiation (a common tertiary disinfection stage in wastewater treatment). Therefore in order to address this knowledge gap, a total of twenty phages were isolated from municipal wastewater and characterised using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and host range assessment. Ultraviolet radiation (UV) inactivation kinetics were determined using two phases of laboratorybased collimated beam experiments using UV-B and UV-C wavelengths.

Date of Award	Sept 2010
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton