Hierarchical oligonucleotide primer extension (HOPE)-based approach to identify sources of fecal contamination in water bodies

A set of HOPE primers to identify human and nonhuman fecal contamination ○5 primers to detect human-associated Bacteroides, 5 primers to detect dog-, pig- and cow-specific Bacteroides Tested on 62 feces collected from known origins, formulated a set evaluation criteria ○ All four human-associated Bacteroides present = human feces ○ Animal-specific primer present = animal feces ○ Spatial location of sample in MDS plot Test 1: 21 blind samples ○Able to correctly identify fecal origins in 81% of blind samples ○Remaining samples have inconclusive results because of low abundances of dog-specific Bacteroidales Test 2: environmental waters 1.Able to indicate impaired water qualities, results comparable to fecal coliform test 2.Able to denote fecal origins, provides an advantage over fecal coliform test. 2009