The use of culture methods to detect Escherichia coli diversity does not provide sufficient resolution to identify strains present at low levels. Here, we target the hypervariable gnd gene and describe a database containing 534 distinct partial gnd sequences and associated O groups for use with culture-independent E. coli community analysis. The DNA sequences of the 534 distinct gSTs are available in FASTA format from GitHub (https://github.com/mEpiLab/gnd).
Funding
Funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment's Our Land and Water National Science Challenge (Toitū te Whenua, Toiora te Wai) as part of project Faecal Source Tracking