The discharge of human-derived wastewater represents a major threat to water quality with the potential for waterborne disease outbreaks mainly associated with enteric viruses. To prevent illnesses, indicators associated with fecal contamination are monitored in polluted areas, however, their prevalence often does not correlate well with viral pathogens. In this study, we used crAssphage, a recently discovered human-specific gut-associated bacteriophage, for the surveillance of wastewater-derived viral contamination. Untreated and treated wastewater, surface water, sediment and mussel samples were collected monthly over 1 year from the Conwy River and estuary (UK) and were analyzed for crAssphage marker by quantitative PCR. This is the first long-term catchment-to-coast scale study of environmental crAssphage concentrations. CrAssphage was detected in all sample types and showed no distinct seasonal pattern. CrAssphage concentrations were 2 × 10⁵–10⁹ genome copies (gc)/L in all untreated wastewater influent and 10⁷–10⁸ gc/L in secondary treated effluent samples, 3 × 10³ gc/L–3 × 10⁷ gc/L in surface water samples (94% positive) and 2 × 10²–10⁴ gc/g sediment (68% positive) and mussel digestive tissue (79% positive). CrAssphage concentrations were 1–5 log₁₀ higher than human enteric virus titers (norovirus, sapovirus, adenovirus, polyomavirus). Our results indicate that crAssphage is well suited to tracking human wastewater contamination and pollution risk assessment in aquatic environments.

中文翻译：

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CrAssphage 作为水生环境中人为废水污染分子标记的批判性评估。

人类废水的排放对水质构成重大威胁，有可能爆发主要与肠道病毒有关的水传播疾病。为了预防疾病，在污染地区监测与粪便污染相关的指标，然而，其流行率往往与病毒病原体没有很好的相关性。在这项研究中，我们使用 crAssphage（一种最近发现的人类特异性肠道相关噬菌体）来监测废水源性病毒污染。一年多来，每月从康威河和河口（英国）收集未经处理和已处理的废水、地表水、沉积物和贻贝样本，并通过定量 PCR 分析 crAssphage 标记。这是第一个对环境噬菌体浓度进行从流域到海岸规模的长期研究。CrAssphage 在所有样本类型中均被检测到，并且没有表现出明显的季节性模式。所有未经处理的废水进水中的CrAssphage 浓度为 2 × 10 ⁵ –10 ⁹基因组拷贝 (gc)/L  ，二级处理的废水样品中的 CrAssphage 浓度为10 ⁷ –10 ^{8 gc/L，3 × 10 3}  gc/L–3 × 10 ⁷  gc /L 地表水样（94% 阳性）和 2 × 10 ² –10 ⁴  gc/g 沉积物（68% 阳性）和贻贝消化组织（79% 阳性）。CrAssphage 浓度比人肠道病毒滴度（诺如病毒、沙波病毒、腺病毒、多瘤病毒）高1-5 log _{10 。}我们的结果表明 crAssphage 非常适合跟踪人类废水污染和水生环境中的污染风险评估。