Bacterial activity and community composition in stream water and biofilm from an urban river determined by fluorescent in situ hybridization and DGGE analysis

Ruben Araya; Katsuji Tani; Tatsuya Takagi; Nobuyasu Yamaguchi; Masao Nasu

doi:10.1111/j.1574-6941.2003.tb01050.x

Bacterial activity and community composition in stream water and biofilm from an urban river determined by fluorescent in situ hybridization and DGGE analysis

FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2003 Feb 1;43(1):111-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2003.tb01050.x.

Authors

Ruben Araya¹, Katsuji Tani, Tatsuya Takagi, Nobuyasu Yamaguchi, Masao Nasu

Affiliation

¹ Environmental Science and Microbiology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, 1-6, Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.

PMID: 19719701
DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2003.tb01050.x

Abstract

Abstract Physiologic activity and community structure of planktonic and biofilm microbial communities in an urban river were analyzed using 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride (CTC) staining, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified 16S rDNA fragments. Respiring bacteria estimated by CTC reduction were higher in biofilms (20%) than in stream water samples (12%). FISH analysis revealed that bacterial populations in both stream water and biofilms were dominated by beta-Proteobacteria and Cytophaga-Flavobacterium cluster. Microbial community changes determined by multidimensional scaling analysis from DGGE patterns showed that microbial community structures in biofilms matured within 3-7 days of their formation and did not change further, while those in stream water changed continuously.