Fifteen shades of clay: distinct microbial community profiles obtained from bentonite samples by cultivation and direct nucleic acid extraction.

ABSTRACT: Characterizing the microbiology of swelling bentonite clays can help predict the long-term behaviour of deep geological repositories (DGRs), which are proposed as a solution for the management of used nuclear fuel worldwide. Such swelling clays represent an important component of several proposed engineered barrier system designs and, although cultivation-based assessments of bentonite clay are routinely conducted, direct nucleic acid detection from these materials has been difficult due to technical challenges. In this study, we generated direct comparisons of microbial abundance and diversity captured by cultivation and direct nucleic acid analyses using 15 reference bentonite clay samples. Regardless of clay starting material, the corresponding profiles from cultivation-based approaches

SUBMITTER: Vachon MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8595889 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature