Molecular biological tools in concrete biodeterioration – a mini review

ABSTRACT

Concrete structures develop biofilms when exposed to various environments. At a certain stage, the microbial films destroy the concrete structures leading to significant deterioration. Culture-dependent techniques give an incomplete picture of the microbial communities on the concrete surface. Culture-independent techniques or molecular biological tools pave a new way to analyse microbial communities involved in concrete biodeterioration. This study highlights the need to ‘build’ a database, for Microbiologically Influenced Concrete Corrosion (MICC) involving microbial groups that are being identified using culture-dependent and independent techniques. The role of molecular tools such as 16S rRNA sequencing, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT–PCR), microarray analysis, 2-Dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) in analysing microbial communities on the concrete structures have been reviewed in this paper.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Concrete biodeterioration
• DGGE
• FISH
• microarray chips
• 2-dimensional electrophoresis

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.