1 Functional soil metagenomics: elucidation of polycyclic aromatic 1 hydrocarbon degradation potential following 12 years of in situ 2 bioremediation 3 4 Márcia Duarte 1 , Agnes Nielsen 1 , Amélia Camarinha-Silva 1,3 , Ramiro Vilchez-Vargas 1,4 , 5 Thomas Bruls 2 , Melissa L. Wos-Oxley 1 , Ruy Jauregui 1,5 and Dietmar H. Pieper 1 * 6 7 1 Microbial Interactions and Processes Research Group, HZI – Helmholtz Centre for Infection 8 Research, Inhoffenstr. 7, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany. 9 2 Institut de Génomique, Genoscope, UMR8030 (CNRS, CEA, Université d'Evry), Evry, 10 France. 11 12 *For correspondence. E-mail Dietmar.Pieper@helmholtz-hzi.de; Tel. (+49) 531 6181 4200. 13 14 Running title: Functional soil metagenomics 15 16 3 Present affiliation: Institute of Animal Nutrition, University of Hohenheim Emil-Wolf-Str. 10, 17 70599 Stuttgart, Germany. 18 4 Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases, Otto-von-Guericke- 19 University, Magdeburg, Germany. 20 5 AgResearch Grasslands, Tennent drive, Palmerston North, New Zealand 21 22