Bacterial and fungal community compositions in HMWPAH
enrichments. In order to provide an overview of any differences
in bacterial and fungal community composition between
treatments at day 33, DGGE analysis was performed on amplified
16S rRNA genes and the intergenic transcribed spacer (ITS) region
between the 5.8S and 28S rRNA genes, respectively (Fig. 4).
For enrichments derived from TPW, a significant difference
(50%) (P 0.05 by analysis of similarities [ANOSIM]) in the
bacterial communities was observed with respect to the control
(i.e., TPW inoculum with no added PAH, which had followed the
same pattern of enrichment as those cultures with PAHs, but no
PAH was added at any stage) (Fig. 4A). The biofilm communities
on the filters were between 78 and 91% similar to the planktonic
communities enriched with the same PAH. Furthermore, BaPenriched
communities were more similar to those enriched on
BbF (76%) than to those enriched on Pyr (60%) (Fig. 4).