Catabolism of sialic acids in an environmental microbial community

Tomás-Martínez, Sergio; Chen, Le Min; Neu, Thomas R.; Weissbrodt, David G.; Loosdrecht, Mark C.M. van; Lin, Yuemei

doi:10.1093/femsec/fiac047

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Accumulibacter" (56%), anammox bacteria (Boleij et al 2018) and ammonium oxidizing bacteria (Yin et al 2015) such as glycoproteins have been described. EPSs have been reported to be utilized by their producers or other neighboring microbes during nutrient limited conditions (Zhang and Bishop 2003;Pannard et al 2016;Tomás-Martínez et al 2022). In EBPR systems like the one presented in this research, carbon is rapidly taken up and stored intracellularly by PAOs; therefore, no carbon source is available to other organisms present in the community and EPS could potentially be used as carbon source.…”

Section: No Difference In Turnover Was Observed Between Extracellular...mentioning

confidence: 90%

Turnover of the extracellular polymeric matrix of granules performing biological phosphate removal

Tomás-Martínez

Zwolsman

Merlier

et al. 2023

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol

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Polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) are responsible for enhanced biological phosphate removal (EBPR) from wastewater, where they grow embedded in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). EPSs comprise a mixture of biopolymers like polysaccharides or (glyco)proteins. Despite previous studies, little is known about the dynamics of EPS in mixed cultures, and their production by PAOs and potential consumption by flanking microbes. EPSs are biodegradable and have been suggested to be a substrate for other organisms in the community. Studying EPS turnover can help elucidate their biosynthesis and biodegradation cycles. We analyzed the turnover of proteins and polysaccharides in the EPS of an enrichment culture of PAOs relative to the turnover of internal proteins. An anaerobic-aerobic sequencing batch reactor (SBR) simulating EBPR conditions was operated to enrich for PAOs. After achieving a stable culture, carbon source was switched to uniformly 13C-labeled acetate. Samples were collected at the end of each aerobic phase. EPSs were extracted by alkaline treatment. 13C enrichment in proteins and sugars (after hydrolysis of polysaccharides) in the extracted EPS were measured by mass spectrometry. The average turnover rate of sugars and proteins (0.167 and 0.192 d−1 respectively) was higher than the expected value based on the solid removal rate (0.132 d−1), and no significant difference was observed between intracellular and extracellular proteins. This indicates that EPS from the PAO enriched community is not selectively degraded by flanking populations under stable EBPR process conditions. Instead, we observed general decay of biomass, which corresponds to a value of 0.048 d−1. Key Points • Proteins showed a higher turnover rate than carbohydrates. • Turnover of EPS was similar to the turnover of intracellular proteins. • EPS is not preferentially consumed by flanking populations.

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Section: No Difference In Turnover Was Observed Between Extracellular...mentioning

confidence: 90%

Turnover of the extracellular polymeric matrix of granules performing biological phosphate removal

Tomás-Martínez

Zwolsman

Merlier

et al. 2023

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Accumulibacter" (56 %), anammox bacteria (Boleij et al 2018) and ammonium oxidizing bacteria (Yin et al 2015) such glycoproteins have been described. EPS have been reported to be utilized by their producers 20 or other neighboring microbes during nutrient limited conditions (Zhang and Bishop 2003;Pannard et al 2016;Tomás-Martínez et al 2022). In EBPR systems, carbon is rapidly taken up and stored intracellularly by PAOs, therefore no carbon source is available to other organisms present in the community and EPS could potentially be used as carbon source.…”

Section: No Difference In Turnover Was Observed Between Extracellular...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Turnover of the extracellular polymeric matrix in an EBPR microbial community

Tomás-Martínez

Zwolsman

Merlier

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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Polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) are responsible for enhanced biological phosphate removal (EBPR) from wastewater, where they grow embedded in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). EPS comprise a mixture of biopolymers like polysaccharides or (glyco)proteins. Despite previous studies, little is known about the dynamics of EPS in mixed cultures, and their production by PAOs and potential consumption by flanking microbes. EPS are biodegradable and have been suggested to be a substrate for other organisms in the community. Studying EPS turnover can help elucidate their biosynthesis and biodegradation cycles. We analyzed the turnover of proteins and polysaccharides in the EPS of an enrichment culture of PAOs relative to the turnover of internal proteins. An anaerobic-aerobic sequencing batch reactor (SBR) simulating EBPR conditions was operated to enrich for PAOs. After achieving a stable culture, carbon source was switched to uniformly 13C-labelled acetate. Samples were collected at the end of each aerobic phase. EPS were extracted by alkaline treatment. 13C enrichment in proteins and sugars (after hydrolysis of polysaccharides) in the extracted EPS were measured by mass spectrometry. The average turnover rate of sugars and proteins (0.167 and 0.192 d-1 respectively) was higher than the expected value based on the solid removal rate (0.132 d-1), and no significant difference was observed between intracellular and secreted proteins. This indicates that EPS from the PAO enriched community is not selectively degraded by flanking populations under stable EBPR process conditions. Instead, we observed general decay of biomass, which corresponds to a value of 0.048 d-1.

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“…Accumulibacter” has been hypothesized to display metabolic traits for EPS biosynthesis, although often described as a slow-growing chemoorganoheterotroph. First sets of metabolic and enzymatic investigations of EPS formation in PAO enrichments have been recently reported (Tomás-Martínez et al, 2021; 2022; 2023a; 2023b). “ Ca.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production of extracellular polymeric substances in granular sludge under selection forAccumulibacterandCompetibacter

Guimarães

Gubser

Lin

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Granular sludge intensifies the removal of nutrients from wastewater. Granules structured by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) can be recovered as biomaterial. Links between microbial selection and EPS formation during granulation need to get uncovered. We inoculated anaerobic-aerobic sequencing batch reactors with either flocs or granules to study the relationships between microbial selection, bioaggregation, exopolymer formation, and EPS composition. Selection for slow-growing organisms like the model polyphosphate-accumulating organism "Candidatus Accumulibacter" (max. 83% vs. amplicon sequencing read counts) and glycogen-accumulating organism "Ca. Competibacter" (max. 45%) sustained granulation. Gel-forming exopolymers were produced as high as above 40% of the volatile solids of the biomass by stepwise increase of the organic loading rate (0.3 to 2.0 g CODAc d-1 LR-1). Confocal laser scanning microscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, and HPAE-PAD chromatography revealed the complex and dynamic chemical compositions of the structural EPS in relation to microbial population shifts along reactor regimes. The analysis of 20 representative genomes of "Ca. Accumulibacter" and "Ca. Competibacter" recovered from public databases revealed their functional potential to produce EPS among other representative wastewater microorganisms. The more than 40 functional gene categories annotated highlight the complexity of EPS metabolic networks from monomers processing to assembly, export, and epimerizations. The combination of ecological engineering principles and systems microbiology will help unravel and direct the production of EPS from wastewater, valorizing residual granular sludge into beneficial biomaterials for the circular economy.

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Catabolism of sialic acids in an environmental microbial community

Cited by 6 publications

References 41 publications

Turnover of the extracellular polymeric matrix of granules performing biological phosphate removal

Turnover of the extracellular polymeric matrix of granules performing biological phosphate removal

Turnover of the extracellular polymeric matrix in an EBPR microbial community

Production of extracellular polymeric substances in granular sludge under selection forAccumulibacterandCompetibacter

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