Metagenomic analysis of bacterial diversity in two types of microbial fuel cells

Abstract

16S rRNA gene sequencing has been widely used for identifying the species of environmental bacterial communities because of the high conservation level of the gene. Alternatively, 16S rRNA gene fragments can be retrieved from shotgun metagenomic sequences (metagenomes) and used for species profiling. In this study, the diversity of bacteria in two types of microbial fuel cells including BOD sensor type III and toxicity sensor type E2 has been analyzed by investigating the I6S rRNA sequences in the corresponding metagenomes. The total DNA from each MFC was extracted and the 16S rRNA with the length of 1400 bpwas amplified, purified.