All nosZ primer combinations, except nosLb:nosRb,
amplified a fragment of the correct size in the six environmental
samples (Table 1) making all these sets
promising for community surveys. If other criteria for
evaluation of the primers are taken into account, such as
number of strains and genera that can be amplified, the
nosZ-F [18] in combination with nosZ1622R from this
study were the best. This set is also the only one yielding
amplicons of sufficient size both for community surveys
and for DGGE