A qualitative procedure of purified DNA/RNA co-extraction from complex organic matter, …

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusions
• References
• Table 1
• Table 2
• Table 3
• Figures

The development of sensitive techniques to detect microorganisms with specific metabolisms for compounds mineralization can facilitate microorganism isolation, both in situ and in the selection phase. Optimization of the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplification techniques on native populations in complex solid matrices, together with their rapid execution, has allowed their application in the detection of catabolic genes to characterize the biodegrading ability of a microbial community. These techniques also allow the persistence of these properties to be determined, providing immediate indications on the effectiveness of the operative conditions when biological processes are conditioned with specific microbial inoculations.

The main objective of this study, as part of a wider experimentation on the biological treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in industrial gaseous emissions, was to set up a PCR and RT-PCR molecular method for monitoring the expression of some fundamental microbial genes involved in VOCs degradation when supported on organic solid matrices. Microbial enriched biofilter beds were used to reduce complex solvent systems containing slow-degrading aromatic compounds (xylenes often account for 20% and, together with toluene, could form 35% of total VOCs) (Civilini 2006), because it is known that acceptable removal levels cannot always be achieved for each compound and inhibitory effects on the microflora have been reported (Chang et al. 2000).