Accumulation of MS2, GA, and Qβ phages on high density polyethylene (HDPE) and drinking water biofilms under flow/non-flow conditions

Distinct adsorption kinetics of Qβ and GA bacteriophages on drinking water biofilms

“…The biofilm rotating disc reactor as well as the preparation of Qb and GA bacteriophage suspensions and the quantification of their RNA genome by real-time reverse transcription-PCR (real-time RT-PCR) have been previously described (Pelleïeux et al 2012). …”

“…Recently we have reported the accumulation of F-specific RNA bacteriophages (Qb and GA) on drinking water biofilms grown on HDPE (high density polyethylene) under non-flow conditions (Pelleïeux et al 2012). We found GA and Qb phages accumulate in different proportions on pipe walls and we hypothesized the different surface properties of these colloids could control the higher accumulation of GA phage.…”

“…For modeling we used some data provided by (Pelleïeux et al 2012). Six mathematical models (described in the Supplementary data), which represent different combinations of mechanistic and mass transfer adsorption rate limitations, with or without a rapid adsorption equilibrium close to the interface, and with or without a limited number of adsorption sites were investigated in this work.…”

“…The accumulation of enteric viruses and bacteriophages (used as models) on drinking water biofilms has been previously documented at lab scale in static systems and in pilot mimicking pipes under flow (Quignon et al 1997;Helmi et al 2008;Pelleïeux et al 2012). Such experimental works can be useful in predicting the transport of the viruses all along drinking water networks.…”

“…1 such fouling showed an heterogeneous distribution with soft brown deposits bearing iron oxides (up to few millimeters in high with approximately 10 6 bacteria/cm 2 ), and thin layers of cells sticked strongly to the substratum (30 lm thickness, 10 7 bacterial cells/cm 2 on average). Bacteriophages behave as soft colloidal particles (Langlet et al 2008;Michen and Graule 2010;Dika et al 2011), which can effectively adsorb on surfaces and on biofilms (Helmi et al 2008;Storey and Ashbolt 2001;Pelleïeux et al 2012). Due to their size, they are subjected to Brownian motion in the bulk but their kinetics of transfer from the water phase to the biofilm is poorly described.…”