Immunological detection of thymine dimers in indigenous genomic DNA from pre-disinfection drinking water as an ultraviolet disinfection dosimeter

Abstract

Culture-based methods are the primary methods used for the routine detection and enumeration of bacteria and viruses in water samples. In the context of ultraviolet (UV) disinfection, they are also the basis for reactor validation in drinking water treatment systems. However, the majority of microorganisms in pre-disinfection drinking water are not culturable. In UV disinfection, the DNA of both the culturable and non-culturable microbial populations will form pyrimidine dimers in response to UV photon absorbance. In this research an enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect thymine dimers in the extractable genomic DNA (gDNA) from the total microbial population in pre-disinfection drinking water as a UV disinfection dosimeter. The method was first optimised using “naked” (extracted prior to UV exposure) and in vivo (extracted post UV exposure) E. coli gDNA, and then tested using water samples from UK drinking water treatment plants. Samples were exposed to up to 120 mJ cm⁻² of monochromatic (253.7 nm) UV light using a collimated beam device and an ELISA was applied to the gDNA. This approach, once optimised, resulted in linear relationships between the assay response and UV dose. This shows that ELISA-based enumeration of thymine dimers in total extractable gDNA from a mixed species population has the potential to provide a direct, relatively quick, sampling-based means of monitoring the UV disinfection dose being delivered by operating UV disinfection systems in drinking water treatment plants, without the need to spike a biodosimeter into the water nor take reactors out of service. Molecular techniques measuring dimer formation may also offer the UV disinfection industry a method of demonstrating dose delivery where the culturing of target organisms is problematic.