Quantification of anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria in enrichment cultures by quantitative competitive PCR

The anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (ANAMMOX) bacteria were enriched from a sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR) biofilm.We successfully developed a quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction (QC-PCR) system to detect and quantify ANAMMOX bacteria in environmental samples.For QC-PCR system,PCR primer sets targeting 16S ribosomal RNA genes of ANAMMOX bacteria were designed and used.The quantification range of this system was 4 orders of magnitude,from 10~3 to 10~6 copies per PCR,corresponding to the detection limit of 300 target copies per mL.A 312-bp internal standard (IS) was constructed,which showed very similar amplification efficiency with the target amxC fragment (349 bp) over 4 orders of magnitude (10~3-10~6).The linear regressions were obtained with a R~2 of 0.9824 for 10~3 copies,R~2 of 0.9882 for 10~4 copies,0.9857 for 10~5 copies and 0.9899 for 10~6 copies.Using this method,we quantified ANAMMOX bacteria in a shortcut nitrification/denitrification-anammox system which is set for piggery wastewater treatment.