Table 2.

Overview of the used primers in this study.

Oligo. namea	Target	Oligo. sequence (5'–3')	Positionb	GC (%)	Tm	Amplicon size	Assay	References
ARC 109-F	Archaea 16S rRNA gene	ACK GCT CAG TAA CAC GT	109–125	47	54	826	TRFLP sequencing	Großkopf et al., 1998
ARC 934-R		GTG CTC CCC CGC CAA TTC CT	915–934	65	71
CYA 359_mod-F	Cyanobacteria 16S rRNA gene	GRG GAA TYT TCC GCA ATG GG	359–378	60	63	447	qPCR	Nuebel et al., 1997
CYA 781-R		GAC TAC WGG GGT ATC TAA TCC CWT T	791–805	46	64
mlas-mod-F	Universal mcrA gene	GGY GGT GTM GGD TTC ACM CAR TA	976–998a	43–65	68	469	qPCR	Steinberg and Regan, 2008
mcrA-rev-R		CGT TCA TBG CGT AGT TVG GRT AGT	1421–1444a	42–54	66

^aF, forward primer; R, reverse primer.

^bPositions are based on the following: primers targeting the 16S rRNA gene—E.coli; primers targeting the mcrA gene—M. thermautotrophicus mcrA gene accession number: U10036 (following Steinberg and Regan, 2008).