Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1021/acs.est.7b06271
Document author version
Title (Primary) Changes of the specific infectivity of tracer phages during transport in porous media
Author Ghanem, N.; Trost, M.; Sanchez Fontanet, L.; Harms, H.; Chatzinotas, A.; Wick, L.Y.
Source Titel Environmental Science & Technology
Year 2018
Department UMB; iDiv
Volume 52
Issue 6
Page From 3486
Page To 3492
Language englisch
Supplements https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acs.est.7b06271
UFZ wide themes RU3;
Abstract Phages (i.e., viruses infecting bacteria) are considered to be good indicators and tracers for fecal pollution, hydraulic flow, or colloidal transport in the subsurface. They are typically quantified as total virus particles (VLP) or plaque forming units (PFU) of infectious phages. As transport may lead to phage deactivation, VLP quantification can overestimate the number of infectious phages. In contrast, PFU counts may underestimate the transport of total virus particles. Using PFU and tunable resistive pulse sensing-based counting for active and total phages, respectively, we quantified the effect of transport through laboratory percolation columns on the specific infectivity (SI). The SI is defined by the ratio of total VLP to PFU and is a measure for the minimum particle numbers needed to create a single infection. Transport of three marine tracer phages and the coli-phage (T4) was described by colloidal filtration theory. We found that apparent collision efficiencies of active and total phages differed. Depending on the phage properties (e.g., morphology or hydrophobicity), passage through a porous medium led to either an increasing or decreasing SI of effluent phages. Our data suggest that both phage mass recovery and the SI should be considered in quantitative phage tracer experiments.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=20148
Ghanem, N., Trost, M., Sanchez Fontanet, L., Harms, H., Chatzinotas, A., Wick, L.Y. (2018):
Changes of the specific infectivity of tracer phages during transport in porous media
Environ. Sci. Technol. 52 (6), 3486 - 3492 10.1021/acs.est.7b06271