Enumaration of ammonium oxidizing microorganisms with QPCR by functional ammonium monooxygenase gene

In natural ecosystems N sources (NO3 and NH4) are supplied to plants through the microbial processes as products of N fixation and mineralization, i.e. the activity of soil microbes determines the amount of N that is transformed to plant-usable forms. In this study, a total of 10 sea water samples obtained from different places of coastal areas of the Gulf of Izmir and river basins which flow into the called as inner and middle areas of the gulf were analyzed for presence of nitrifiying bacteria by using qPCR in 2014. The number of AOB (4–9x105 cells g/1 of sea water ) determined with the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) and the rate of potential nitrification 01-1 µg L-1h-1of sea water indicated the presence of stable AOB populations. The AOB population sizes changed little with the different growing seasons.