Digital PCR as an Emerging Tool for Monitoring of Microbial Biodegradation
The Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution (NRPOP) Control Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL A1B 3X5, Canada
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Molecules 2020, 25(3), 706; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25030706
Received: 27 December 2019 / Revised: 3 February 2020 / Accepted: 4 February 2020 / Published: 6 February 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodegradation of Conventional and Emerging Pollutants)
Biodegradation of contaminants is extremely complicated due to unpredictable microbial behaviors. Monitoring of microbial biodegradation drives us to determine (1) the amounts of specific degrading microbes, (2) the abundance, and (3) expression level of relevant functional genes. To this endeavor, the cultivation independent polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based monitoring technique develops from endpoint PCR, real-time quantitative PCR, and then into novel digital PCR. In this review, we introduce these three categories of PCR techniques and summarize the timely applications of digital PCR and its superiorities than qPCR for biodegradation monitoring. Digital PCR technique, emerging as the most accurately absolute quantification method, can serve as the most promising and robust tool for monitoring of microbial biodegradation.
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Keywords:
biodegradation; digital PCR; monitoring; emerging contaminants
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Cao, Y.; Yu, M.; Dong, G.; Chen, B.; Zhang, B. Digital PCR as an Emerging Tool for Monitoring of Microbial Biodegradation. Molecules 2020, 25, 706. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25030706
AMA Style
Cao Y, Yu M, Dong G, Chen B, Zhang B. Digital PCR as an Emerging Tool for Monitoring of Microbial Biodegradation. Molecules. 2020; 25(3):706. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25030706
Chicago/Turabian StyleCao, Yiqi; Yu, Miao; Dong, Guihua; Chen, Bing; Zhang, Baiyu. 2020. "Digital PCR as an Emerging Tool for Monitoring of Microbial Biodegradation" Molecules 25, no. 3: 706. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25030706
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