Opportunities for Environmental Applications of Marine Biotechnology Proceedings of the October 5-6, 1999, Workshop (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Microbial Contamination
Microbial Contamination
Pages 102-111
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From page 102... ...
. The viruses do not metabolize without their hosts, which is very important because it denotes that they McCulloch-Crosby Chair of Marine Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 102
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From page 103... ...
IMPACT OF CONTAMINANT EXPOSURE The financial impact of even the perception of microbial contamination in the marine environment is extremely costly because people spend a lot of money to go to the beach, live near the beach, or be involved with recreation somehow associated with the beach. The affected industries include tourism, real estate, and a multitude of support industries, which might be far from the beach itself, such as a place in the Midwest that makes boogie boards, beach towels, or floats.
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From page 104... ...
A related concern is coastal septic systems, where there is no local sewer system and people's individual septic systems have a connection through ground water to the sea. From these sources, contaminated water is released into the marine environment directly at the shoreline or at an estuary precisely where people want to go swimming.
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From page 105... ...
The problem with indicators in the context of bacterial testing is that we know many of these coliforms may be coming from animal sources such as birds. So if you have an estuary that happens to be in a bird corridor, with birds migrating through in large numbers, test results will indicate significant amounts of bacteria in the water.
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From page 106... ...
In surface waters, 5% of them are archaea, and in the deep sea, maybe 50% are archaea; and they group phylogenetically with the thermophilic species. The closest cultured relatives to the marine archaea have an optimum temperature of 105°C, and they like hot acid.
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From page 107... ...
It is now possible to look for their genetic material without waiting for them to grow. The reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR)
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From page 108... ...
In our laboratory, we have been using RT PCR with samples from Southern California beaches to detect enteroviruses. We have approximately 50 measurements from which we have compared detection of viruses with the standard bacterial test.
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From page 109... ...
Such probes can be used in the PCR test and detected while the test is being done, allowing for a quick quantitative answer. Taqman is another similar test, and it relies on enzymatic release of a fluorophore from a labeled oligonucleotide probe.
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From page 110... ...
ADDITIONAL ISSUES One additional issue regards questions relating to pathogens of marine organisms. Although this is not my main area of expertise, I have heard people talk about epidemics among marine organisms, possibly including endangered species such as marine mammals.
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From page 111... ...
2000 Enteroviruses detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in the coastal waters of Santa Monica Bay, California: Low correlation to bacterial indicator levels. Hydrobiologia (Forthcoming)
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