Figure 1

Growth of strain SN2 in tidal flat sediment (a) and seawater (b) supplemented with naphthalene or pyruvate. Arrows indicate the time at which cells were harvested for mRNA extraction. The number of 16S rRNA gene copies of strain SN2 and the concentrations of naphthalene and pyruvate in tidal flat sediment and the optical density in seawater were measured using three independent cultures.