Temporal Detection and Phylogenetic Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 in Municipal Wastewater

SARS-CoV-2 has recently been detected in feces, which indicates that wastewater may be used to monitor viral prevalence in the community. Here, we use RT-qPCR to monitor wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 RNA over a 74-day time course. We show that changes in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations follow symptom onset gathered by retrospective interview of patients but precedes clinical test results. In addition, we determine a nearly complete (98.5%) SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence from wastewater and use phylogenetic analysis to infer viral ancestry. Collectively, this work demonstrates how wastewater can be used as a proxy to monitor viral prevalence in the community and how genome sequencing can be used for genotyping viral…

• MM
  M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
• MS
  Montana State University
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Award: 1R35GM134867
• OO
  Office of Research and Economic Development, Montana State University