• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: Simple Absolute Quantification Method Correcting for Quantitative PCR Efficiency Variations for Microbial Community Samples
  • Beteiligte: Brankatschk, Robert; Bodenhausen, Natacha; Zeyer, Josef; Bürgmann, Helmut
  • Erschienen: American Society for Microbiology, 2012
  • Erschienen in: Applied and Environmental Microbiology
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.1128/aem.07878-11
  • ISSN: 0099-2240; 1098-5336
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  • Beschreibung: <jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title> <jats:p> Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) is a widely used technique in microbial community analysis, allowing the quantification of the number of target genes in a community sample. Currently, the standard-curve (SC) method of absolute quantification is widely employed for these kinds of analysis. However, the SC method assumes that the amplification efficiency ( <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> ) is the same for both the standard and the sample target template. We analyzed 19 bacterial strains and nine environmental samples in qPCR assays, targeting the <jats:italic>nifH</jats:italic> and 16S rRNA genes. The <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> values of the qPCRs differed significantly, depending on the template. This has major implications for the quantification. If the sample and standard differ in their <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> values, quantification errors of up to orders of magnitude are possible. To address this problem, we propose and test the one-point calibration (OPC) method for absolute quantification. The OPC method corrects for differences in <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> and was derived from the ΔΔ <jats:italic> C <jats:sub>T</jats:sub> </jats:italic> method with correction for <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> , which is commonly used for relative quantification in gene expression studies. The SC and OPC methods were compared by quantifying artificial template mixtures from <jats:named-content content-type="genus-species">Geobacter sulfurreducens</jats:named-content> (DSM 12127) and <jats:named-content content-type="genus-species">Nostoc commune</jats:named-content> (Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa [CCAP] 1453/33), which differ in their <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> values. While the SC method deviated from the expected <jats:italic>nifH</jats:italic> gene copy number by 3- to 5-fold, the OPC method quantified the template mixtures with high accuracy. Moreover, analyzing environmental samples, we show that even small differences in <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> between the standard and the sample can cause significant differences between the copy numbers calculated by the SC and the OPC methods. </jats:p>
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