V4V5 E. coli microcosms - Selective survival of Escherichia coli phylotypes in freshwater beach sand

This work investigated the basis for survival of E. coli through field microcosm experiments and phylotypic characterization of E. coli isolated from sand, sewage, and gulls, enabling identification of long-surviving populations and environmental drivers of their persistence. Microcosms containing populations of E. coli from each source (n=176) were buried in the backshore of Lake Michigan for 45 & 96 days under several different nutrient treatments, including unaltered native sand, sterile autoclaved sand and baked nutrient depleted sand. The shift in bacterial populations in this experiment were assessed using 16s rRNA gene analysis, which was conducted on samples collected before and after burial in the sand.