Coastal marsh sediment alkB gene survey
This dataset includes high-throughput amplicons for alkane dehydrogenase (alkB) genes, particulate monooxygenase (pmoA) genes, and cytochrome P450, encoded by CYP153, genes amplified and sequenced from subtidal sediment and inland soil samples collected biannually (September 2011 to October 2014) from a marsh near Grand Isle, Louisiana. This marsh was affected by oil deposition following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The goals of this dataset are to 1) track changes in the phylogenetic diversity of genes that code for a key enzymes used for bacterial alkane oxidation, short and long chain, from the oil impacted sediments and soil, and 2) to contribute to an understanding of bacterial functional role in the degradation of weathered oil residues in a natural marsh system. Subtidal sediments were collected 1-2 m offshore from the marsh vegetation edge (labelled A1 for 0-1 cm depth and C1 for 4-5 cm depth), and inland soils were collected 5 m from the edge (labelled MS). From extracted DNA, functional genes were amplified and single-direction reads were generated using multiplexed, bar-coded primers for pyrosequencing.