[Preliminary application of PCR-DGGE to analyzing microbial diversity in biofilters treating air loaded with ammonia]

As a new DNA fingerprinting technique, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) can be used to analyze the microbial diversity in different environmental samples. Three biofilters treating air loaded with ammonia will be studied with respect to microbial diversity by applying cultivation-independent molecular methods DGGE. The principal objectives of this paper include the development and application of a suitable set of molecular tools to deliver information about the possible microbial community changes within carriers during treatment of ammonia-contaminated gas. Carriers were sampled at different time during operation of biofilters. After extraction and purification of the genomic DNA, the 16S rRNA genes (V3 region) were amplified by using the specific primers. These amplified DNA fragments were then separated by paralleled DGGE. The profile of DGGE showed that the same carrier at different time had the different bands' patterns. The structural diversity of the microbial community was examined by the Shannon index of general diversity H. Shannon indexes of three kinds of carriers all showed a decrease with time, which had a similar trend to NH3 removal efficiency.