TABLE 2.

Properties of PCR and RT-PCR and the different primer sets used for Q-PCR protocols^a

Target and primers	Reaction efficiency		Correlation coefficient of regression line		Melting temp (°C)		Detection limit of T. denitrificans-like nucleic acids ml−1b
	Before	After	Before	After	Before	After	Before	After
16S rRNA gene
Com	1.02 ± 0.02	0.99 ± 0.06	1.000 ± 0.000	0.999 ± 0.001	83.87 ± 0.16	82.73 ± 0.36
OST	1.04 ± 0.15	0.97 ± 0.09	0.996 ± 0.003	1.000 ± 0.000	77.47 ± 0.14	77.44 ± 0.15	1.4 × 103	0.2
16S rRNA
Com	0.81 ± 0.07	0.88 ± 0.08	0.999 ± 0.001	0.998 ± 0.002	82.52 ± 0.26	82.83 ± 0.33
OST	0.84 ± 0.07	0.89 ± 0.08	0.998 ± 0.001	0.998 ± 0.002	77.38 ± 0.15	77.40 ± 0.17	7.4 × 104	20

^aBefore, results without a preamplification step, using nucleic acids extracted from Bx enrichments; after, results with a preamplification step. Mean values of three or more determinations ± standard deviations are given.

^bValues are numbers of copies.