Establishment of quantitative PCR methods for the quantification of geosmin-producing potential and Anabaena sp. in freshwater systems

Highlights

# These authors contributed equally to this work.

a Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Regional Environment and Sustainability, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences., Beijing 100085, China.
b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences., Beijing 100049, China.
c South Australia Water Corporation, Australian Water Quality Centre, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.
d Ecology, Evolution and Landscape Sciences, School of Earth and Environment Sciences, Adelaide University, Adelaide nil, Australia.
e Healthscope Pathology SA, Adelaide, SA 5034, Australia.

* Corresponding to: Min Yang (yangmin@rcees.ac.cn)

  • Two qPCR assays were established to quantify Anabaena abundance and geosmin-producing potential.
  • ARG copy number correlated with microscopic Anabaena counts across culture and field samples.
  • GSG copy number correlated with intracellular geosmin measured by GC-MS.
  • The assays reduced time to results from several days to a few hours in the historical workflow.