MULTIPLEX-PCR MARKERS FOR DETECTING FAECAL WATER POLLUTION IN ANTALYA COAST

摘要

High tourist population during summer season usually results in an increase in amount of faecal pollution being discharged without any treatment into seawater. Faecal pollution is one of the major environmental threats to human health, and fast detection of contaminants is very important for protecting public health. Conventional methods to detect faecal microbial pollution in seawater are well-known for their technical limitations, such as lack of direct pathogen detection capacity, time-consuming and laborious process. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology, used to detect virulence gene markers, allows for various new approaches in faecal indicator research due to its high sensitivity, speed and culture-independent assay capacity. This work aims at using virulence Ecol, Typl, Ssonl, and EpsM gene markers to detect faecal indicators, such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella typi, Shigella sonnei and Vibrio cholerae to show microbial pollution in Antalya beaches during summer seasons by using multiplex PCR Multiplex PCR analysis was performed on 216 water samples collected from 6 stations in Konyaalti, Old-city-port, Kemer, Beldibi, Lara and Side between September 2010 to August 2011. The results show that E. coli Ecol gene and S. sonnei Ssonl gene were identified positively in Konyaalti, Lara, Belek and Kemer beach water which simply indicated that Antalya coasts have been contaminated by faecal sewage during the hot and touristic season.