Figure 4.

Proposed primers for further metagenomic analyses. To get these primers the nucleotide sequences of the parvulin surrounding genes have been aligned with ClustalW. Several requirements (length between 18 and 24 bases, average GC content over 40%, average salt adjusted melting temperature between 50 °C and 65 °C) has been applied. The resulting primers for genes surrounding the thaumarchaeal parvulin are shown in this figure. For positions that were ambiguous, the respective IUPAC code for degenerate bases have been used: A or C, M; A or G, R; A or T, W; G or C, S; C or T, Y; G or T, K; A, G or C, V; A, C or T, H, A, G or T, D; G, C or T, B; A, G, C or T, N.