Microbial community involved in primary recycling of lignin-derived phenol in the marine environment

Microbial communities serve as potential biocatalysts for ecological alleviation of toxic pollutants in themarine environment. Moreover, lignin-derived phenols present in the marine sediment are harmful tohuman, animal and ecosystem health. However, understanding the fate of a lignin-derived aromaticcompound degradation, especially vanillin by microbial community, is essential in marine sediments.The present study aimed to identify key aerobic vanillin degrading microbial communities in the marinesediment in the Celtic sea.The microcosms were set up with sediment 1 m depth and incubated at 10 OC under aerobic conditions.The sediments were collected inside a large pockmark in Dunmanus Bay from Iris in 5 mL vials(Supleco). DNA analyses coupled with quantitative qPCR was performed to determine the copy numberof 16S rRNA genes in the major SIP fractions collected from 12C- and 13C-vanillin microcosms