Thursday Seminar from Enze Li

This week we will have an exit seminar from Enze Li (Schellhorn lab)!

There will be coffee and snacks before the seminar. Please bring your own mug.

Thursday 12 Dec, 4:00PM, HSC 1A5 and on zoom (Passcode: cElegans)

Application of qPCR assays and novel source tracking markers on water quality monitoring in the Great Lakes area

A major purpose of water quality monitoring is to identify possible fecal contamination, which is often associated with the release of waterborne pathogens and antibiotic-resistant organisms. Though bacterial pathogens (like salmonella and shigella species) are more frequently detected, viral pathogens and protozoan parasites are also great threats for showing relatively lower infectious doses. Direct detection of fecal pathogens is often laborious, time-consuming and requires additional biosafety settings, so instead, microbial fecal markers are often employed as proxy to represent fecal pathogens. Due to different environmental surviving strategies, bacterial markers can better present bacterial pathogens whereas viral markers can better represent viral pathogens. In my Ph.D. projects, both bacterial (Phocaeicola species) and viral (crAssphage) markers were applied to water quality monitoring at selected sites in the lower Great Lakes area, with particular attention to human fecal contamination. Results showed that human fecal contamination was frequently observed during the summer season, and that human sources rather than animal sources, ranked the predominant fecal source. In particular, Humber River and Etobicoke Creek as the receiving water of sewage discharges, had more severe and more frequent sewage contamination than their associated recreational freshwater beaches. In addition to the fecal marker development, qPCR assays detecting marker genes of Cryptosporidium and methanogens were developed to better assess health risk associated with protozoan parasites and to evaluate the operating status of anaerobic digesters.