Host range of SXT/R391 elements determined by EpicPCR in Meurthe River water sampled in Malzeville City (FRANCE).. Meurthe River water EpicPCR

We developed and implemented a new epicPCR method using water samples collected in the Meurthe River (Malzéville, France). Basically, this method consists in using cells entrapped/confined in polyacrylamide beads in order to perform fusion-PCR linking a functional marker of interest to a 16S rRNA gene fragment for taxonomic assignment of bacteria hosting this marker thanks to NGS. In this study, we targeted the bacteria hosting ICEs belonging to the SXT/R391 family and compared the advantage and disadvantage of using different polyacrylamide beads batches in either technical or biological replicates.