bssA amplicon pyrosequencing

The anaerobic degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons is a key ecosystem service provided by microbes in ecosystems impacted by pollution. Research in recent years has resulted in substantial advances in our understanding of the diversity and ecology of natural populations of anaerobic hydrocarbon degraders, both in marine and terrestrial sedimentary subsurface habitats. Part of this research has been fuelled by the development and optimization of specific functional marker genes for anaerobic hydrocarbon degraders, i.e. qualitative and quantitative molecular assays allowing for the detection of key catabolic genes or transcripts involved in degradation. Especially, these include the so-called “fumarate-adding enzymes” benzylsuccinate synthase (bssA) and alkylsuccinate synthase (assA/masD) involved in the primary activation of aromatic hydrocarbons and alkanes under anaerobic conditions. Here, we summarize the most important advances and then demonstrate the appeal of recent next-generation sequencing-based approaches towards catabolic gene markers for in-depth degrader community dissection. This contributes to a more thorough and routine inspection of intrinsic degrader populations responsible for key catabolic services at sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.