For the general detection of bacterial populations capable of degrading aromatic compounds, two PCR primer sets were designed which can, respectively, amplify specific fragments from a wide variety of catechol 1,2-dioxygenase (C12O) and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (C23O) genes. The C12O-targeting primer set (C12O primers) was designed based on the homologous regions of II C12O genes listed in the GenBank, while the C23O-targeting one (C23O primers) was designed based on those of 17 known C23O genes. Oligonucleotide probes (C12Op and C23Op) were also designed from the internal homologous regions to identify the amplified fragments, The specificity of the primer sets and probes was confirmed using authentic bacterial strains known to carry the C12O and/or C23O genes used for the primer and probe design. Various authentic bacterial strains carrying neither C12O nor C23O genes were used as negative controls. PCR with the C12O primers amplified DNA fragments of the expected sizes from 5 of the 6 known C12O-carrying bacterial strains tested, and positive signals were obtained from 4 of the 5 amplified fragments on Southern hybridization with the C12Op, The C23O primers amplified DNA fragments of the expected size from all the 11 tested C23O-carrying bacterial strains used for their design, while the C23Op detected positive signals in the amplified fragments from 9 strains. On the other hand, no DNA fragments were amplified from the negative controls. To evaluate the applicability of the designed primers and probes for the general detection of aromatic compound-degrading bacteria, they were applied to wild-type phenol- and/or benzoate-degrading bacteria newly isolated from a variety of environments. The C12O and/or C23O primers amplified DNA fragments of the expected sizes from 69 of the 106 wild-type strains tested, white the C12Op and/or C23Op detected positive signals in the amplified fragments from 63 strains. These results suggest that our primer and probe systems can detect a considerable proportion of bacteria which can degrade aromatic compounds via catechol cleavage pathways.