Brevundimonas diminuta is the test organism specified in the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) reverse osmosis (RO) treatment device verification protocol. As non-selective growth medium is employed, enumeration of B. diminuta may be impaired due to interference by indigenous heterotrophic bacteria. Thus the microbial removal capability of the filtration system may be incorrectly assessed. As these treatment devices are used in emergency situations, the health of the public could be compromised. The objective of this study was to develop selective approaches for enumerating viable B. diminuta in test water. Two molecular approaches were investigated: expression of a kanamycin resistance gene and expression of a fluorescent protein gene. The USEPA protocol specifies a 0.3 μm cell size, so the expression of the selective markers were assessed following growth on media designed to induce this small cell diameter. The kanR strain was demonstrated to be equivalent to the wild type in cell dimension and survival following exposure to the test water. The kanR strain showed equivalent performance to the wild type in the RO protocol indicating that it is a viable alternative surrogate. By utilizing this strain, a more accurate validation of the RO system can be achieved.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
April 09 2012
Molecular cloning of Brevundimonas diminuta for efficacy assessment of reverse osmosis devices
Robert Donofrio;
1Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, NSF International, 789 Dixboro Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, USA
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for other works by this author on:
Ratul Saha;
Ratul Saha
1Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, NSF International, 789 Dixboro Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Lori Bestervelt;
Lori Bestervelt
1Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, NSF International, 789 Dixboro Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Susan Bagley
Susan Bagley
2Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
J Water Health (2012) 10 (2): 278–287.
Article history
Received:
August 29 2011
Accepted:
February 27 2012
Citation
Robert Donofrio, Ratul Saha, Lori Bestervelt, Susan Bagley; Molecular cloning of Brevundimonas diminuta for efficacy assessment of reverse osmosis devices. J Water Health 1 June 2012; 10 (2): 278–287. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2012.146
Download citation file: