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qPCR Target Information
Bacteria of the Peptococcaceae family have been shown to play an important role in anaerobic petroleum hydrocarbon degradation under denitrifying, iron-reducing, and sulfate-reducing conditions. Whilst Peptococcaceae are strictly anaerobic, they often form syntrophic partnerships with denitrifiers, eg. Peptococcaceae "crack" the benzene ring and pass the intermediate products to the nitrate-reducing partner.
The Peptococcaceae family are highly versatile and act as iron, sulfate and manganese reducers to degrade alkanes, BTEX and PAHs.
The bacteria will express different genes depending upon the type of hydrocarbon they are degrading, ie:
assA for alkanes
abcAD for benzene
bssA for toluene and xylene
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