Characterizing the diversity of active bacteria in soil by comprehensive stable isotope probing of DNA and RNA with H₂¹⁸ O.

ABSTRACT: Current limitations in culture-based methods have lead to a reliance on culture-independent approaches, based principally on the comparative analysis of primary semantides such as ribosomal gene sequences. DNA can be remarkably stable in some environments, so its presence does not indicate live bacteria, but extracted ribosomal RNA (rRNA) has previously been viewed as an indicator of active cells. Stable isotope probing (SIP) involves the incorporation of heavy isotopes into newly synthesized nucleic acids, and can be used to separate newly synthesized from existing DNA or rRNA. H₂¹⁸ O is currently the only potential universal bacterial substrate suitable for SIP of entire bacterial communities. The aim of our work was to compare soil bacterial community composition a

SUBMITTER: Rettedal EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4398504 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature