METHOD OF DETECTING AND IDENTIFYING MICROBIAL SOURCES OF CONTAMINATION IN WATER SYSTEMS

摘要

The present invention relates to a method of detecting contaminants of microbial origin in a water distribution system and, more particularly, to a method of identifying the microbes contaminating the system, by manipulation of the DNA of the microbes. The microbes are collected, and a portion of the DNA sequence of a particular gene that is found in microbes is amplified. The portion of the DNA sequence that is amplified contains a highly variable region and the identity of the microbe can be determined by that DNA sequence. Each amplified DNA sequences is matched against the known sequences of corresponding regions in the DNA sequences of various microbes. Thus, the spectrum of microbial contaminants, and their relative quantities, can be identified in the liquid collected from different locations of the water distribution system.