Monitoring aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation by functional marker genes

Mari Nyyssönen*, Reetta Piskonen, Merja Itävaara

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The development of biological treatment technologies for contaminated environments requires tools for obtaining direct information about the biodegradation of specific contaminants. The potential of functional gene array analysis to monitor changes in the amount of functional marker genes as indicators of contaminant biodegradation was investigated. A prototype functional gene array was developed for targeting key functions in the biodegradation of naphthalene, toluene and xylenes. Internal standard probe based normalization was introduced to facilitate comparison across multiple samples. Coupled with one-colour hybridization, the signal normalization improved the consistency among replicate hybridizations resulting in better discrimination for the differences in the amount of target DNA. During the naphthalene biodegradation in a PAH-contaminated soil slurry microcosm, the normalized hybridization signals in naphthalene catabolic gene probes were in good agreement with the amount of naphthalene-degradation genes and the production of 14CO2. Gene arrays provide efficient means for monitoring of contaminant biodegradation in the environment.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)192-202
JournalEnvironmental Pollution
Volume154
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Aromatic hydrocarbon
  • Biodegradation
  • Monitoring
  • Functional gene
  • Gene array

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Monitoring aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation by functional marker genes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this