Bacterial communities in pigmented biofilms formed on the sandstone bas-relief walls of the Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom, Cambodia.

The Bayon temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia has shown serious deterioration and is subject to the formation of various pigmented biofilms. Because biofilms are damaging the bas-reliefs, low reliefs engraved on the surface of sandstone, information about the microbial community within them is indispensable to control biofilm colonization. PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of biofilm samples from the pigmented sandstone surfaces showed that the bacterial community members in the biofilms differed clearly from those in the air and had low sequence similarity to database sequences.