Investigation of Microbial Community Structures and Dechlorination Pathways in a PCB-Contaminated Sediment Core(Abstract)

摘要

The objective of this work is to understand how microbial populations, physical and chemical characteristics of sediments, and the structure and concentration of polychlori- nated biphenyl (PCB) congeners affects microbial degradation and populations of dechlo- rinators in contaminated sediments. In this study, changes in microbial community diversity and abundance are evaluated along with PCB congener profiles in a sediment core from a site contaminated with PCBs. Quantification of PCB dechlorinating organisms is challenging due to their low abun- dance in a diverse community. Real time PCR quantification of PCB dechlorinating populations has not been previously reported, but this technique is known to be very accurate at identifying specific sequences of DNA in order to quantify populations. Thus, in the present work real-time PCR along with group-specific primer-probe sets for PCB dechlorinating populations as well as bacteria, archaea, Chloroflexi, and Dehalococcoides are used to selectively determine the concentration of each microbial group in sediment cores.