cSterile Milli
Thiazovivin Q water used as control. ***Statistically significant at alpha < 0.05. Abbreviations: ND, Not Detected. Figure 1 Map of study area/sampling sites in the landscape. Inset view simulates the complete 2510 km stretch of river Ganga from Himalaya to Bay of Bengal. Abbreviations: S#1, site 1: Bithoor (most upstream site); S#2, site 2: Bhairon ghat; S#3, site 3: Parmat ghat; S#4, site 4: sattichaura ghat or nana-rao ghat; S#5, site 5: jajmau (most downstream site). Arrows indicate the direction of surface water flow in the up-to-down-gradient fashion in the landscape. Topographic data based upon Survey of India map (adopted from http://www.ttkmaps.com). Enterococcus spp. isolated from river Ganga waters A significant (χ2: 100.4,
df: 20; p < 0.0001) heterogeneity and diversity was observed in Enterococcus spp. recovered from river Ganga surface water samples collected from five different sites (Table 2). The spatial heterogeneity of Enterococcus spp. varied widely along the landscape, depending upon exposure to various www.selleckchem.com/products/epz-5676.html environmental and anthropogenic factors. In general, the enterococcal spatial heterogeneity seems to be introduced either via point sources (urban sewage, clinical and industrial discharge) or nonpoint sources (agricultural runoff and storm-water route).E. faecalis (64%) was found to be the most prevalent species followed by E. faecium (24%) throughout the landscape. A gamut of factors appears to complement the increase of E. faecalis and E. faecium coexistence towards the down-gradient sites in the similar environmental niche. The coexistence of these two genotypes in one niche may be due to their differential affinity and efficiency of resource utilization complementing similar phenomenon reported elsewhere for Vibrio cholerae serogroups; O139 Bengal and O1 E1 Tor [23]. In the same study, the enhanced affinity of V. cholerae O1 E1 Tor to colonize copepods was observed
to be a contributory factor for its dominance in cholera epidemic. Likewise E. faecalis, the most prevalent species observed in this study has been implicated in ca. 67% and 90% of enterococcal infection cases associated with multiple-antimicrobial-resistance in different clinical studies conducted Thymidine kinase in India and USA respectively [12, 24]. E. durans and E. hirae were not evenly distributed throughout the landscape. The presence of E. hirae (2%) was observed only at the locations which receive Cyclopamine price tannery effluents contaminated with heavy metals. The prevalence of E. durans (8%) appears to be affected by urban wastewater point-source contamination. The “”other Enterococcus spp.”" was present at site 5 only. Moreover, it appears that the environmental factors account for the spatial variation of Enterococcus spp. in the landscape. Table 2 Frequency of distribution of Enterococcus spp. diversity among sites (n = 5) Sampling Site No. of isolates (%) p-Value E. faecalis E. faecium E. durans E. hirae other Enterococcus spp.