Dataset Information

Structure and function of the microbial consortia of activated sludge in typical municipal wastewater treatment plants in winter.

ABSTRACT: To better understand the relationship between the environmental variables and microbial communities of activated sludge, we took winter samples from different biological treatment units (anaerobic, oxic, etc) from the WWTP's of a number of Chinese cities. Differences in influent organic components and activated sludge microbial communities were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and high-throughput sequencing technology, respectively. Liquid nitrogen grinding pretreatment of samples was found to aid in the obtaining of a more bio-diversified sample. Influent type and dissolved oxygen concentration influenced the activated sludge microbial community structure. Nitrospira, Caldilineaceae and Anaerolineaceae were highly related to domestic wastewater treatment systems, whereas Thauera was the most abundant putative refractory aromatic hydrocarbon decomposer found in industrial wastewater treatment systems. Within the influent composition, we speculate that Thauera, Macellibacteroides and Desulfomicrobium are the key functional genera of the anaerobic environment of the textile dyeing industry wastewater treatment systems, whilst Thauera and Thiobacillus are key functional microbes in fine chemical wastewater treatment systems.

SUBMITTER: Zhang B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5738398 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Structure and function of the microbial consortia of activated sludge in typical municipal wastewater treatment plants in winter.

Zhang Bo B Xu Xiangyang X Zhu Liang L

Scientific reports 20171220 1

To better understand the relationship between the environmental variables and microbial communities of activated sludge, we took winter samples from different biological treatment units (anaerobic, oxic, etc) from the WWTP's of a number of Chinese cities. Differences in influent organic components and activated sludge microbial communities were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and high-throughput sequencing technology, respectively. Liquid nitrogen grinding pretreatment of samp ...[more]

PMID: 29263391

Similar Datasets

Project description:Activated sludge (AS) plays a crucial role in the treatment of domestic and industrial wastewater. AS is a biocenosis of microorganisms capable of degrading various pollutants, including organic compounds, toxicants, and xenobiotics. We performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing of AS and incoming sewage in three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) responsible for processing sewage with different origins: municipal wastewater, slaughterhouse wastewater, and refinery sewage. In contrast to incoming wastewater, the taxonomic structure of AS biocenosis was found to become stable in time, and each WWTP demonstrated a unique taxonomic pattern. Most pathogenic microorganisms (Streptococcus, Trichococcus, etc.), which are abundantly represented in incoming sewage, were significantly decreased in AS of all WWTPs, except for the slaughterhouse wastewater. Additional load of bioreactors with influent rich in petroleum products and organic matter was associated with the increase of bacteria responsible for AS bulking and foaming. Here, we present a novel approach enabling the prediction of the metabolic potential of bacterial communities based on their taxonomic structures and MetaCyc database data. We developed a software application, XeDetect, to implement this approach. Using XeDetect, we found that the metabolic potential of the three bacterial communities clearly reflected the substrate composition. We revealed that the microorganisms responsible for AS bulking and foaming (most abundant in AS of slaughterhouse wastewater) played a leading role in the degradation of substrates such as fatty acids, amino acids, and other bioorganic compounds. Moreover, we discovered that the chemical, rather than the bacterial composition of the incoming wastewater was the main factor in AS structure formation. XeDetect (freely available: https://sourceforge.net/projects/xedetect) represents a novel powerful tool for the analysis of the metabolic capacity of bacterial communities. The tool will help to optimize bioreactor performance and avoid some most common technical problems.

Project description:It is assumed that microbial communities involved in the biological treatment of different wastewaters having a different chemical composition harbor different microbial populations which are specifically adapted to the environmental stresses encountered in these systems. Yet, little is known about the composition of these microbial communities. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the microbial community composition over two seasons (winter and summer) in activated sludge from well-operating textile wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in comparison with municipal WWTPs, and to explain observed differences by environmental variables. 454-pyrosequencing generated 160 archaeal and 1645 bacterial species-level Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), with lower observed richness in activated sludge from textile WWTPs compared to municipal WWTPs. The bacterial phyla Planctomycetes, Chloroflexi, Chlorobi, and Acidobacteria were more abundant in activated sludge samples from textile WWTPs, together with archaeal members of Thaumarchaeota. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis of the microbial communities showed that microbial communities from textile and municipal WWTPs were significantly different, with a seasonal effect on archaea. Nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria as well as phosphate-accumulation bacteria were more abundant in municipal WWTPs, while sulfate-reducing bacteria were almost only detected in textile WWTPs. Additionally, microbial communities from textile WWTPs were more dissimilar than those of municipal WWTPs, possibly due to a wider diversity in environmental stresses to which microbial communities in textile WWTPs are subjected to. High salinity, high organic loads, and a higher water temperature were important potential variables driving the microbial community composition in textile WWTPs. This study provides a general view on the composition of microbial communities in activated sludge of textile WWTPs, and may provide novel insights for identifying key players performing important functions in the purification of textile wastewaters.

Dataset Information

Structure and function of the microbial consortia of activated sludge in typical municipal wastewater treatment plants in winter.

Publications

Structure and function of the microbial consortia of activated sludge in typical municipal wastewater treatment plants in winter.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets