Bacterial community dynamics during start-up of a trickle-bed bioreactor degrading aromatic compounds

Three new 16S and 23S rRNA-targeted probes for phylogenetic groups within the beta subclass of the class Proteobacteria were developed for the derivation of a higher taxonomic resolution of the molecular techniques. These were designed in the course of the first-ever application of fluorescent in situ hybridization to examine microbial community structure and dynamics in the fermentor and the bioreactor during start-up, using a laboratory-scale fixed-bed bioreactor degrading a mixture of aromatic compounds.