Droplet Digital™ PCR: Linking Microbial Physiology and Phylogeny Using Bio-Rad’s QX100™ Droplet Digital PCR System

For environmental microbiology, Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR™) provides a new opportunity to investigate linkages between physiology and phylogeny. PCR, quantitative PCR (qPCR), and sequencing-based metagenomics have revolutionized microbiology over the past few decades by providing new insights into microbial diversity and metabolic interactions. We can now expand on these by rapidly and simply determining linkage utilizing the unique properties of ddPCR. Using this simple ddPCR approach, we demonstrate the association of proteorhodopsin with SAR11 16S rRNA signatures without the need for extensive metagenomic analysis.