Comprehensive evaluation of primer pairs targeting the ammonia monooxygenase subunit A gene of complete ammonia-oxidizing Nitrospira

ABSTRACT Since the discovery of complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox) within the genus Nitrospira , their distribution and abundance across habitats have been intensively studied to better understand their ecological significance. Many primers targeting their ammonia monooxygenase subunit A gene ( amoA ) have been designed to detect and quantify comammox bacteria and to describe their community structure. We identified 38 published primers, but only few had high coverage and specificity for all known comammox Nitrospira or one of the two described subclades. For each target group, we comprehensively evaluated selected primer pairs using in silico analyses, endpoint PCRs, qPCRs, and amplicon sequencing on samples from various environments. Endpoint PCRs and qPCRs showed that the most commonly used primer pairs (comaA-244F/659R, comaB-244F/659R, and Ntsp-amoA162F/359R) produced several bands, which likely inflated quantifications via qPCR. In contrast, the recently published primer combinations CA377F/C576R, CB377F/C576R, and CA-CB377F/C576R resulted mostly in a single band. Furthermore, amplicon sequencing demonstrated that these primer combinations also captured the highest richness of comammox Nitrospira . Taken together, our results indicate that few existing comammox amoA primer combinations have both high specificity and coverage and that the choice of these high-specificity and high-coverage primer pairs substantially impacts the accurate detection, quantification, and community description of comammox bacteria. We, therefore, recommend using the CA377F/C576R, CB377F/C576R, and CA-CB377F/C576R primer pairs. IMPORTANCE Bacteria that can fully convert ammonia via nitrite to nitrate, the complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox), were recently discovered and are found in many natural and engineered environments. PCR-based tools to study their abundance and diversity were rapidly developed, resulting in a plethora of primers available, many of which are widely used. The presence of comammox bacteria in an environment can, however, only be correctly determined if the used primers detect all members of this group while not detecting any other guilds. This study assesses the coverage and specificity of existing primers targeting comammox bacteria using both computational and standard molecular techniques, revealing large differences in their performance. The uniform usage of well-performing primers across studies could aid in generating comparable and generalizable data to better understand the importance of comammox bacteria in the environment.