Dataset Information

Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea in groundwater treatment and drinking water distribution systems.

ABSTRACT: The ammonia-oxidizing prokaryote (AOP) community in three groundwater treatment plants and connected distribution systems was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR and sequence analysis targeting the amoA gene of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA). Results demonstrated that AOB and AOA numbers increased during biological filtration of ammonia-rich anoxic groundwater, and AOP were responsible for ammonium removal during treatment. In one of the treatment trains at plant C, ammonia removal correlated significantly with AOA numbers but not with AOB numbers. Thus, AOA were responsible for ammonia removal in water treatment at one of the studied plants. Furthermore, an observed negative correlation between the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration in the water and AOA numbers suggests that high DOC levels might reduce growth of AOA. AOP entered the distribution system in numbers ranging from 1.5 x 10(3) to 6.5 x 10(4) AOPs ml(-1). These numbers did not change during transport in the distribution system despite the absence of a disinfectant residual. Thus, inactive AOP biomass does not seem to be degraded by heterotrophic microorganisms in the distribution system. We conclude from our results that AOA can be commonly present in distribution systems and groundwater treatment, where they can be responsible for the removal of ammonia.

SUBMITTER: van der Wielen PW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2708422 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea in groundwater treatment and drinking water distribution systems.

van der Wielen Paul W J J PW Voost Stefan S van der Kooij Dick D

Applied and environmental microbiology 20090522 14

The ammonia-oxidizing prokaryote (AOP) community in three groundwater treatment plants and connected distribution systems was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR and sequence analysis targeting the amoA gene of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA). Results demonstrated that AOB and AOA numbers increased during biological filtration of ammonia-rich anoxic groundwater, and AOP were responsible for ammonium removal during treatment. In one of the treatment trains at plant C, ammoni ...[more]

PMID: 19465520

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Project description:Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) can oxidize ammonia to nitrite for energy gain. They have been detected in chloraminated drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) along with the more common ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). To date, no members of the AOA have been isolated or enriched from drinking water environments. To begin the investigation of the role of AOA in chloraminated DWDS, we developed a selective approach using biofilm samples from a full-scale operational network as inoculum. A Nitrososphaera viennensis-like AOA taxon was enriched from a mixed community that also included Nitrosomonas-like AOB while gradually scaling up the culture volume. Dimethylthiourea (DMTU) and pyruvate at 100 μM were added to promote the growth of AOA while inhibiting AOB. This resulted in the eventual washout of AOB, while NOB were absent after 2 or 3 rounds of amendment with 24 μM sodium azide. The relative abundance of AOA in the enrichment increased from 0.2% to 39.5% after adding DMTU and pyruvate, and further to 51.6% after filtration through a 0.45-μm pore size membrane, within a period of approximately 6 months. IMPORTANCE Chloramination has been known to increase the risk of nitrification episodes in DWDS due to the presence of ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms. Among them, AOB are more frequently detected than AOA. All publicly available cultures of AOA have been isolated from soil, marine or surface water environments, meaning they are allochthonous to DWDS. Hence, monochloramine exposure studies involving these strains may not accurately reflect their role in DWDS. The described method allows for the rapid enrichment of autochthonous AOA from drinking water nitrifying communities. The high relative abundance of AOA in the resulting enrichment culture reduces any confounding effects of co-existing heterotrophic bacteria when investigating the response of AOA to varied levels of monochloramine in drinking water.

Project description:Black soils (Mollisols) of northeast China are highly productive and agriculturally important for food production. Ammonia-oxidizing microbes play an important role in N cycling in the black soils. However, the information related to the composition and distribution of ammonia-oxidizing microbes in the black soils has not yet been addressed. In this study, we used the amoA gene to quantify the abundance and community composition of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) across the black soil zone. The amoA abundance of AOA was remarkably larger than that of AOB, with ratios of AOA/AOB in the range from 3.1 to 91.0 across all soil samples. The abundance of AOA amoA was positively correlated with total soil C content (p < 0.001) but not with soil pH (p > 0.05). In contrast, the abundance of AOB amoA positively correlated with soil pH (p = 0.009) but not with total soil C. Alpha diversity of AOA did not correlate with any soil parameter, however, alpha diversity of AOB was affected by multiple soil factors, such as soil pH, total P, N, and C, available K content, and soil water content. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that the AOA community was mainly affected by the sampling latitude, followed by soil pH, total P and C; while the AOB community was mainly determined by soil pH, as well as total P, C and N, water content, and sampling latitude, which highlighted that the AOA community was more geographically distributed in the black soil zone of northeast China than AOB community. In addition, the pairwise analyses showed that the potential nitrification rate (PNR) was not correlated with alpha diversity but weakly positively with the abundance of the AOA community (p = 0.048), whereas PNR significantly correlated positively with the richness (p = 0.003), diversity (p = 0.001) and abundance (p < 0.001) of the AOB community, which suggested that AOB community might make a greater contribution to nitrification than AOA community in the black soils when ammonium is readily available.

Dataset Information

Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea in groundwater treatment and drinking water distribution systems.

Publications

Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea in groundwater treatment and drinking water distribution systems.

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