Sulfate-reducing microbial communities associated with freshwater cable bacteria

Cable bacteria are filamentous bacteria that couple the reduction of oxygen at the sediment surface to the oxidation of sulfide in deeper, anoxic sediment layers. The objective of this project was to analyze the effect that the presence of cable bacteria has on rates of sulfate reduction in sediments and the corresponding community of sulfate reducing microorganisms (SRM). To achieve the latter of these objectives, the beta subunit of the dissimilatory sulfite reductase gene (dsrB) in freshwater sediments with and without cable bacteria.