Benzene and Toluene degradation under Cd and Pb heavy metal co-contamination

With either benzene or toluene presented as a carbon source, microcosms were amended with varying levels of either Pb or Cd as a heavy metal. After a short enrichment process, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing was used to ascertain the microbial communities. qPCR assays were developed and used to corroborate findings across triplicate microcosms and samples, and provide quantitative information.