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 |