Department of Microbiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research (IWWR), Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2012 Feb;78(3):752-8. doi: 10.1128/AEM.07113-11. Epub 2011 Dec 2.
Anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria play an important role in the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen. They derive their energy for growth from the conversion of ammonium and nitrite into dinitrogen gas in the complete absence of oxygen. Several methods have been used to detect the presence and activity of anammox bacteria in the environment, including 16S rRNA gene-based approaches. The use of the 16S rRNA gene to study biodiversity has the disadvantage that it is not directly related to the physiology of the target organism and that current primers do not completely capture the anammox diversity. Here we report the development of PCR primer sets targeting a subunit of the hydrazine synthase (hzsA), which represents a unique phylogenetic marker for anammox bacteria. The tested primers were able to retrieve hzsA gene sequences from anammox enrichment cultures, full-scale anammox wastewater treatment systems, and a variety of freshwater and marine environmental samples, covering all known anammox genera.
厌氧氨氧化（anammox）细菌在氮的生物地球化学循环中起着重要作用。它们在完全缺氧的情况下，从将氨和亚硝酸盐转化为氮气中获取生长所需的能量。已经使用了几种方法来检测环境中厌氧氨氧化细菌的存在和活性，包括基于 16S rRNA 基因的方法。使用 16S rRNA 基因来研究生物多样性的缺点是它与目标生物体的生理学没有直接关系，并且当前的引物不能完全捕获厌氧氨氧化多样性。在这里，我们报告了针对肼合酶（hzsA）亚基的 PCR 引物的开发，该亚基是厌氧氨氧化细菌的独特系统发育标记。经过测试的引物能够从厌氧氨氧化富集培养物、全规模厌氧氨氧化废水处理系统以及各种淡水和海洋环境样本中回收 hzsA 基因序列，涵盖了所有已知的厌氧氨氧化属。
