4.
Conclusion
In this study, we designed qPCR standards for quantifying various
taxonomic and functional genes used in microbial ecology, such as those
involved in C and N cycling, by synthesizing double-stranded DNA
sequences as gBlocks gene fragments. We show that synthetic DNA
standards performed equally well as traditional plasmid standards in
producing linear qPCR calibration curves, yielding precise and efficient
results for a broad range of soils. The application of synthetic DNA
standards for qPCR assays is however not limited to soils, but can be
recommended for all kind of genes from a large variety of environments,
such as water, air and sediments, whenever qPCR is needed for gene
quantification.