Of the 16 sequenced EnV PCR products, 12 were identified as human coxsackie A/B viruses, causative agents of herpangina, meningitis, fever, respiratory disease, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, myocarditis, heart anomalies, thrush, pleurodynia, and diabetes

However, while detection efficiency may be increased, this method does require additional processing time and effort, as an adequate number of shellfish must be acquired and dissected prior to nucleic acid extraction. Thus, this method may be more suitable for indepth water quality studies, while the ease and simplicity of direct water sample collection may be more practical for routine recreational water monitoring. Future research, including laboratory-controlled spike studies to measure bioaccumulation and inhibition levels, will further investigate the practical feasibility of using shellfish as natural and competent bioindicators of water quality. Although the described methods are powerful supplements to aid microbial water quality monitoring, we realize that without more conclusive infectivity data, public health implications are limited. Risk assessment at any particular recreational site cannot be based solely on PCR-detected EnV presence or absence from a single sample collection. Additionally, our present study is limited to the detection of EnV strains present in Hawaii, which may not be a complete representation of the EnV composition present elsewhere. For serious consideration as a valid and established alternative monitoring system, broader large-scale trials, including additional sampling sites and replicate samples from each site, will be necessary. Also, comparisons with standardized bacterial surveillance systems will contribute to a more thorough understanding of water quality assessment. In summary, the highly sensitive approaches reported here for EnV detection from recreational waters will be extremely useful tools for environmental virologists and are important steppingstones, leading toward the concrete establishment of model alternative water quality monitoring systems. Particularly marine shellfish are potentially useful for enhanced detection efficiency of enteric viruses, Although it is currently unknown whether EnV detected in environmental samples by RT-PCR exists as infectious virus particles, positive molecular detection is still a significant indication of fecally-polluted recreational waters. The high enterovirus prevalence detected in Hawaiian waters should heighten awareness of possible fecally-derived waterborne pathogens and instigate additional surveillance of our precious recreational waters. Stress adaptation is essential for the survival of all organisms. In particular, the heat shock response is a fundamentally important process that has been highly conserved from yeasts to humans. In response to a sudden and acute temperature up-shift, cells rapidly induce the expression of genes that encode molecular chaperones, proteases and other classes of protein. These proteins function in the synthesis, folding, maturation, trafficking and degradation of proteins, and are essential for protection against, and recovery from the ” cellular damage associated with the presence of the aberrantly folded proteins generated by the heat shock. In eukaryotic cells the expression of heat shock protein genes is controlled by the heat shock transcription factor, which is evolutionarily conserved from Saccharomyces cerevisiae to humans. S. cerevisiae Hsf1 is an essential protein that binds to heat shock MG 516 elements in the 7851497 promoter regions of target genes, which include HSP genes. Hsf1 activation leads to the up-regulation of these target genes in response to heat shock thereby promoting cellular adaptation to the ther