Pathogenic human viruses cause over half of gastroenteritis cases associated with recreational water use worldwide. They are relatively difficult to concentrate from environmental waters due to typically low concentrations and their small size. Although rapid enumeration of viruses by quantitative PCR (qPCR) has the potential to greatly improve water quality analysis and risk assessment, the upstream steps of capturing and recovering viruses from environmental water sources along with removing PCR inhibitors from extracted nucleic acids remain formidable barriers to routine use. Here, we compared the efficiency of virus recovery for three rapid methods of concentrating two microbial source tracking (MST) viral markers human adenoviruses (HAdVs) and polyomaviruses (HPyVs) from one liter tap water and river water samples on HA membranes (90 mm diameter). Samples were spiked with raw sewage, and viral adsorption to membranes was promoted by acidification (Method A) or addition of MgCl2 (Methods B and C). Viral nucleic acid was extracted directly from membranes (Method A), or viruses were eluted with NaOH and concentrated by centrifugal ultrafiltration (Methods B and C). No inhibition of qPCR was observed for samples processed by Method A, but inhibition occurred in river samples processed by B and C. Recovery efficiencies of HAdVs and HPyVs were approximately ten-fold greater for Method A (31-78%) than B and C (2.4-12%). Further analysis of membranes from Method B revealed that the majority of viruses were not eluted from the membrane, resulting in poor recovery. The modification of the originally published Method A to include a larger diameter membrane and a nucleic acid extraction kit that could accommodate the membrane resulted in a rapid virus concentration method with good recovery and lack of inhibitory compounds. The frequently-used strategy of viral absorption with added cations (Mg(2+)) and elution with acid were inefficient and more prone to inhibition, and will result in underestimation of the prevalence and concentrations of HAdVs and HPyVs markers in environmental waters.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 16. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 March 2025.
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#2,899,573
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Outputs of similar age from Applied and Environmental Microbiology
#12
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Altmetric has tracked 34,281,662 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 91st percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 22,744 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 171 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
