Rice field soil with a nonsaturated water content induced CH4 consumption activity when it was supplemented with 5% CH4. After a lag phase of 3 days, CH4 was consumed rapidly until the concentration was less than 1.8 parts per million by volume (ppmv). However, the soil was not able to maintain the oxidation activity at near-atmospheric CH4 mixing ratios (i.e., 5 ppmv). The soil microbial commu...

A large proportion of "universal" 16S PCR primers lack sequence homology to many of the "candidate" divisions, severely limiting bacterial diversity assessments. We designed a primer set that offers a 50% increase in silico in coverage of the domain Bacteria over the commonly used primer combination 27F/519R. Comparisons using pyrosequencing on soil environments showed a significant increase in...

The universal primer three-primer approach can dramatically reduce the cost when genotyping the microsatellites. One former research reported four universal primers that can be used in singleplex and multiplex genotyping. In this study, we proposed an alternative suite of universal primers with four dyes for genotyping 8-12 loci in one single run. This multiplex method was tested on Tetranychus...

In contrast with random-primed RACE (1) and RNA-PCR (2) which can be done to amplify respectively specific 5'or 3'-cDNA ends, random-PCR (rPCR) can be used to amplify the whole cDNA population, from 5' to 3' ends, derived from small amounts of RNA transcripts. This quick rPCR method allows construction of whole cDNA libraries from as little as one eukaryotic cell, 100 parasites or bacteria, or ...

We have developed a DNA-based assay to reliably detect brown rot and white rot fungi in wood at different stages of decay. DNA, isolated by a series of CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) and organic extractions, was amplified by the PCR using published universal primers and basidiomycete-specific primers derived from ribosomal DNA sequences. We surveyed 14 species of wood-decaying basidiomyc...

Chloroplast microsatellites (cpSSRs) provide a powerful tool to study the genetic variation and evolution of plants. We have investigated the usefulness of 39 primer pairs tagging cpSSR loci on a set of eight different genera of Leguminosae (Papilionoideae subfamily) and five species belonging to the genus Phaseolus. Thirty-six 'universal' primer pairs were retrieved from the literature, one wa...

Objectives The aim of this study is to compare the shear bond strengths of ceramic brackets bonded to zirconia surfaces using different zirconia primers and universal adhesive. Materials and Methods Fifty zirconia blocks (15 × 15 × 10 mm, Zpex, Tosoh Corporation) were polished with 1,000 grit sand paper and air-abraded with 50 µm Al2O3 for 10 seconds (40 psi). They were divided into 5 groups:...