Application of phylogenetic microarray analysis to discriminate sources of fecal pollution.

Conventional methods for fecal source tracking typically use single biomarkers to systematically identify or exclude sources. High-throughput DNA sequence analysis can potentially identify all sources of microbial contaminants in a single test by measuring the total diversity of fecal microbial communities. In this study, we used phylogenetic microarray analysis to determine the comprehensive suite of bacteria that define major sources of fecal contamination in coastal California.