Ribosomal RNA gene dosage in marine bacteria.

Ribosomal RNA gene dosage was determined for 20 marine heterotrophic bacteria using short probes (< 600 bp) from the Escherichia coli 16S rRNA gene and Southern blot analysis. All Bacterial strains had between 4 and 10 copies of the 16S rRNA genes in their genomes. This report presents important preliminary data for developing quantitative molecular methods to address population dynamics of marine based of 16S rRNA sequences.