Tonight I am in Seattle for the Allen Institute Open Science conference. I watched Rachel Samson P. from Cranfield University in the UK present on “Mapping coliphage diversity for next-generation drinking water security through the nanopore lens.” Samson gained expertise from graduate work to measure water quality and described using coliphage diversity as a proxy. Samson noted that coliphages can be used to learn about water quality and act as a proxy for other viruses. The research team collected water from different stages of water treatment. The team used a protocol to purify and sequence phages using nanopore sequencing. Different phages survived different treatments. The phage landscape can be used as a signature. Samson and team assembled more than 23,000 assembled genomes, creating 319 high quality draft genomes (318 lytic and 1 lysogenic). With this data, the team will improve methods and learn about the potential of using coliphages for water quality assessment.
