16S rRNA-based assays for quantitative detection of universal, human-, cow-, and dog-specific fecal Bacteroidales: a Bayesian approach.

We report the design and validation of new TaqMan((R)) assays for microbial source tracking based on the amplification of fecal 16S rRNA marker sequences from uncultured cells of the order Bacteroidales. The assays were developed for the detection and enumeration of non-point source input of fecal pollution to watersheds. The quantitative "universal"Bacteroidales assay BacUni-UCD detected all tested stool samples from human volunteers (18 out of 18), cat (7 out of 7), dog (8 out of 8), seagull (10/10), cow (8/8), horse (8/8), and wastewater effluent (14/14).

Validation of hollow fiber ultrafiltration and real-time PCR using bacteriophage PP7 as surrogate for the quantification of viruses from water samples.

A quantitative real-time TaqMan PCR system for Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage PP7 was designed to detect PP7 as surrogate in performance tests of 2 hollow fiber ultrafiltration systems in series. Fifty-six storm water samples from 21 sites representing agricultural, urban and highway locations in California were collected. The optimized procedure gave recoveries of spiked PP7 of 64+/-4.