I would like to investigate which insects are associated with N fixing bacteria. For it, I wonder if it would be possible to use specific loci, capable to sequence the bacteria able to fix N, by simply crushing the insect. Moreover, if the primers are specific for the N fixing function, then the success on the amplification should be enough to determine presence/absence regardless of the DNA sequence (so sequencing the PCR product won’t be necessary, and will be much cheaper).

I am far from being an expert on genetics and my knowledge on bacteria is really scarce, therefore any comment and insight about the subject, and the feasibility will be appreciated.