Previous reports provided primers and thermocycling protocols used for amplification of general bacteria [13 (link)], ciliate protozoa [14 (link)], methanogenic archaea [15 (link)], Fibrobacter succinogenes (F. succinogenes) [13 (link)], Ruminococcus albus (R. albus)[16 ] and Ruminococcus flavefaciens (R. flavefaciens) [13 (link)].
Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays (CFX96 Real-Time system; Bio Rad, USA) using the SYBR Green Supermix (QPK-201, Toyobo Co., LTD., Tokyo, Japan) were performed following previously described methods (Denman and McSweeney [13 (link)] and Denman et al [15 (link)]). Microbial abundance was expressed with the following equation: relative quantification = 2−ΔCt(Target)−ΔCt(Control), where Ct represents threshold cycle. The qPCR reaction mixtures (20 μL) contained forward/ reverse primers, SYBR Green Supermix and DNA template.