Abstract
Objective:To evaluate the indigenous bacterial strains of drinking water from the most commercial water types including bottled and filtered water that are currently used in Saudi Arabia.Methods:Thirty randomly selected commercial brands of bottled water were purchased from Saudi local markets. Moreover, samples from tap water and filtered water were collected in sterilized glass bottles and stored at 4°C. Biochemical analyses including pH, temperature, lactose fermentation test (LAC), indole test (IND), methyl red test (MR), Voges-Proskauer test (VP), urease test (URE), catalase test (CAT), aerobic and anaerobic test (Ae/An) were measured. Molecular identification and comparative sequence analyses were done by full length 16S rRNA gene sequences using gene bank databases and phylogenetic trees were constructed to see the closely related similarity index between bacterial strains.Results:Among 30 water samples tested, 18 were found positive for bacterial growth. Molecular identification of four selected bacterial strains indicated the alarming presence of pathogenic bacteria Bacillus spp. in most common commercial types of drinking water used in Saudi Arabia.Conclusion:The lack of awareness about good sanitation, poor personal hygienic practices and failure of safe water management and supply are the important factors for poor drinking water quality in these sources, need to be addressed.
Highlights
The quality of water is important to the health, social and economic wellbeing of people
23 brands (76.6%) of bottled water were obtained from local markets in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with their source or production site in Saudi Arabia, 4 brands (13.3%) were imported, and 10% were from local tap water and filtered water collected from Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia
Amplification of full length 16S rRNA gene: Primers, P1 and P6 amplified 1.5 kb fragment of 16S rRNA gene when the total genomic DNA of bacterial isolates was used as a template in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (Fig.1)
Summary
The quality of water is important to the health, social and economic wellbeing of people. It is important to test the suitability of the quality of water for its use as drinking water. Water that looks potable can contain bacterial contamination, which are not visible to naked eye and cannot be detected by smell, taste and sight. The water is getting polluted and causing negative effects on human health and natural equilibrium. The pollution in water sources has become one of the primary problems worldwide.[1,2]. Many of the bacterial species have the ability to make resistant survival structures.[4] The aim of the current research was to investigate the microbial contaminations and compare their diversity in various drinking water sources. The detection was done by biochemical screening assays and phylogenetic of 16S rRNA gene sequences based diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for molecular identification
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