16S rRNA Sequencing to Identify Unknown Microbes

Ever wonder what that contaminant in your culture is? Need to accurately identify an environmental isolate?

PCR Reaction

For PCR we use universal primers U341F and UA1406R that amplify an approximately 1 kb stretch of rDNA and should work for nearly any bacterial or archaeal sequence [1].

primer	sequence
U341F	CCTACGGGRSGCAGCAG
UA1406R	ACGGGCGGTGWGTRCAA

Analysis

Use the tools at the Ribosomal Protein Database.

References

1. Baker, G.C., Smith, J.J. & Cowan, D.A. Review and re-analysis of domain-specific 16S primers. J Microbiol Methods 55, 541-55 (2003).