Archaeal communities in two disparate deteriorated ancient wall paintings: detection, identification and temporal monitoring by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

Abstract

Abstract In the present study we describe the detection of Archaea in two different deteriorated ancient wall paintings, located in Austria and Spain, under different humidity/salinity regimes and climates. Archaeal communities were analyzed by combination of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of PCR-amplified DNA encoding 16S rRNA and the construction of clone libraries. DGGE analysis was used for temporal monitoring of the archaeal communities as well as for screening of the clone libraries. Selected clones were compared with band patterns obtained from the original samples and sequenced. Sequence analyses documented the existence of species belonging to well-characterized halophilic and alkaliphilic Archaea.