Tomato brown rugose fruit virus Mo gene is a novel microbial source tracking marker.
Aravind NatarajanBrayon J FreminDanica T SchmidtkeMarlene K WolfeSoumaya ZlitniKatherine E GrahamErin F BrooksChristopher J SeverynKathleen M SakamotoNorman J LacayoScott KuerstenJeff KobleGlorianna CavesInna KaplanUpinder SinghPrasanna JagannathanAndrew R RezvaniAmi Siddharth BhattAlexandria B BoehmPublished in: bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (2023)
Human exposure to fecal contamination in the environment can cause transmission of infectious diseases. Microbial source tracking (MST) can identify sources of fecal contamination so that contamination can be remediated and human exposures can be reduced. MST requires the use of fecal host-associated MST markers. Here we design and test novel MST markers from genomes of tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV). The markers are sensitive and specific to human stool, and highly abundant in human stool and wastewater samples.