Evaluating the detection of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria in 16S rRNA gene sequencing surveys

David Berry, Tony Gutierrez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)
78 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCB) play a key role in the biodegradation of oil hydrocarbons in marine and other environments. A small number of taxa have been identified as obligate HCB, notably the Gammaproteobacterial genera Alcanivorax, Cycloclasticus, Marinobacter, Neptumonas, Oleiphilus, Oleispira, and Thalassolituus, as well as the Alphaproteobacterial genus Thalassospira. Detection of HCB in amplicon- based sequencing surveys relies on high coverage by PCR primers and accurate taxonomic classification. In this study, we performed a phylogenetic analysis to identify 16S rRNA gene sequence regions that represent the breadth of sequence diversity within these taxa. Using validated sequences, we evaluated 449 universal 16S rRNA gene-targeted bacterial PCR primer pairs for their coverage of these taxa. The results of this analysis provide a practical framework for selection of suitable primer sets for optimal detection of HCB in sequencing surveys.
Original languageEnglish
Article number896
JournalFrontiers in Microbiology
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 May 2017

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