bioreactor metagenome Metagenome

In this study, we followed the first 240 days of a standard agricultural energy crop digester consisting of a plug flow fermenter and a agitated post digester, operated at 40 to 45°C. The feed consisted of corn and later grass silage augmented by ground wheat. Changes in both the eubacterial and methanogenic archaeal communities were followed by automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA). In addition the copy number of the methyl-coenzyme reductase A (mcrA)-genes found in all known methanogens were followed by quantitative PCR, while selected samples from two phases – one early, one late – of the community structure development were subjected to high throughput sequencing.