title: Modified T-RFLP methods for taxonomic interpretation of T-RF.
abstract: Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) is a method that has been frequently used to survey the microbial diversity of environmental samples and to monitor changes in microbial communities. T-RFLP is a highly sensitive and reproducible procedure that combines a PCR with a labeled primer, restriction digestion of the amplified DNA, and separation of the terminal restriction fragment (T-RF). The reliable identification of T-RF requires the information of nucleotide sequences as well as the size of T-RF. However, it is difficult to obtain the information of nucleotide sequences because the T-RFs are fragmented and lack a priming site of 3'-end for efficient cloning and sequence analysis. Here, we improved on the T-RFLP method in order to analyze the nucleotide sequences of the distinct TRFs. The first method is to selectively amplify the portion of T-RF ligated with specific oligonucleotide adapters. In the second method, the termini of T-RFs were tailed with deoxynucleotides using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) and amplified by a second round of PCR. The major T-RFs generated from reference strains and from T-RFLP profiles of activated sludge samples were efficiently isolated and identified by using two modified T-RFLP methods. These methods are less time consuming and labor-intensive when compared with other methods. The T-RFLP method using TdT has the advantages of being a simple process and having no limit of restriction enzymes. Our results suggest that these methods could be useful tools for the taxonomic interpretation of T-RFs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Chungbuk 361-763, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Kyung
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hye-Ryoung
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mengoni
authors.forename: Dong-Hun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D004253:DNA Nucleotidylexotransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015183:Restriction Mapping / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D004253:DNA Nucleotidylexotransferase