Estimation of the density of the protocatechuate-degrading bacterial community in soil by real-time PCR

Summary The β-ketoadipate pathway is the major route for degradation of aromatic compounds by various soil microorganisms. Protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase, a key enzyme of this pathway and which is encoded by pcaGH genes, catalyses the ring cleavage of protocatechuate. Microorganisms harbouring pcaGH genes are widely distributed in the environment but little is known about their relative abundance within the total microflora. Hence, this paper reports the development of a real-time PCR assay to quantify the bacterial pcaH sequence that encodes the β sub-unit of the protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase. This real-time PCR assay was linear over seven orders of magnitude with a calculated efficienc…