Development of a new primer tool for quantification and identification of geosmin-producing cyanobacteria in drinking water reservoirs

The objective of this project was to develop a new set of primers targeting the geosmin synthase gene in cyanobacteria. It was our aim to develop primer sets that were exclusive to one phylum such that qPCR can be used to determine abundance of geosmin synthase from that phylum. We tested these primer sets on a range of environmental samples and sequenced the amplicon. These new primers may prove useful to other researchers for use in qPCR assays or sequencing.