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The main goal of this work is to develop an effective method for biomass sampling to monitor the microbial diversity at contaminated sites.Within this work, various nanofiber carriers suitable for sampling of biomass and simultaneously for use in molecular-genetic analysis were developed. Two different shapes of a carrier with three different nanofiber densities (including carrier without nanofibers) were prepared and submerged into wells with different contamination (chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons and BTEX). Carriers were sampled in one-month interval for one year. To compare the biomass growth on carriers, groundwater samples were also taken.DNA from samples was isolated by FastDNA SPIN Kit for Soil and measured on Qubit 2.0 fluorometer. Extracted DNA was used as a template for real-time PCR amplification. 16S rDNA gene was used as a total bacterial community marker. Specific genes as vcrA and catechol-2,3-dioxygenase were measured to detect ongoing reductive dechlorination, BTEX degradation respectively.Long-term tests of carriers revealed their suitability for biomass sampling as real-time PCR values measured on carriers oscillated closed to the groundwater samples. The small variance in detected values indicated long-term stability of biofilm present on carriers. Moreover, use of carriers is not time-consuming, very easy to use and no sample preparation is required prior to DNA extraction. The developed nanofiber carriers can be, therefore, effectively used for biomass sampling.
Keywords: biomass carriers, monitoring, nanofibers, real-time qPCR, sampling© 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.