Abstract: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection in wastewater could help in predicting number of infected persons in a given area. We aimed to detect SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater by qRT-PCR targeting different virus genes using in house designed primers. A total of 21 wastewater samples (2 liters each) were collected from influent of Zenin wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Egypt between August 2021 and March 2022 and primers targeting SARS-CoV-2 S, N and E genes were used for detection. Results showed that detection sensitivity was highly affected by the target gene which was 95, 90, and 76% upon targeting the virus N, S, and E genes, respectively.....
Keywords: qRT-PCR, SARS-CoV2, Target gene, Wastewater
[1]. Ahmed, W., Bivins, A., Simpson, S.L., Smith, W.J.M., Metcalfe, S., McMinn, B., Symonds, E.M., Korajkic, A. 2021 Comparative analysis of rapid concentration methods for the recovery of SARS-CoV-2 and quantification of human enteric viruses and a sewage associated marker gene in untreated wastewater.Sci Total Environ, 10, 799:149386.
[2]. Buston, S.A., Benes, V., Garson, J.A., Hellemans, J., Huggett, J., Kubista, M., Mueller, R., Nolan, T., Pfaffl, M.W., Shipley, G.L., Vandesompele, J., Wittwer, C.T .2009 The MIQE guidelines: minimum information for publication of quantitative real-time PCR experiments. Clin. Chem., 55 (4): 611-622.
[3]. CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/variant-classifications.html.
[4]. Farkas, K. , Hillary, L.S., Thorpe, J., Walker, D.I., Lowther,J.A. ,McDonald, J.E., Malham,S.k., Jones, D.L., 2021. Concentration and Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater Using Polyethylene Glycol-Based ConcentrationandqRT-PCR.MethodsProtoc,4: 17.https://doi.org/10.3390/mps4010017.
[5]. Katayama, H., Shimasaki, A., Ohgaki, S. 2002 Development of a virus concentration method and its application to detection of enterovirus and norwalk virus from coastal seawater. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 68:1033–1039..