RNA DNA RATIO AS AN INDICATOR OF METABOLIC-ACTIVITY IN RESIN ACID-DEGRADING BACTERIA/

We investigated the relationship between the growth rate and the ratio of RNA to DNA in of four resin acid degrading bacteria isolated from a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Chemical assays as well as slot blot hybridizations with species-specific oligonucleotide probes were used to quantify the nucleic acids. These slow-growing bacteria have a pos itive linear correlation between growth rate and RNA/DNA ratio, simila r to faster-growing bacteria like E. coli. We propose to use this corr elation to measure metabolic activities of selected resin acid degradi ng bacteria in the complex community of the SBR in situ using Species- specific hybridization probes. preliminary experiments suggest that hy bridization probes can be used to detect growth rate-dependent changes in the RNA/DNA ratio. (C) 1998 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Lt d.