Microbiomes and Planctomycete diversity in large-scale aquaria habitats

Abstract

In commercial large-scale aquaria, controlling levels of nitrogenous compounds is essential for macrofauna health. Naturally occurring bacteria are capable of transforming toxic nitrogen species into their more benign counterparts and play important roles in maintaining aquaria health. Nitrification, the microbially-mediated transformation of ammonium and nitrite to nitrate, is a common and encouraged process for management of both commercial and home aquaria. A potentially competing microbial process that transforms ammonium and nitrite to dinitrogen gas (anaerobic ammonium oxidation [anammox]) is mediated by some bacteria within the phylum Planctomycetes. Anammox has been harnessed for nitrogen removal during wastewater treatment, as the nitrogenous end product is released into the atmosphere rather than in aqueous discharge. Whether anammox bacteria could be similarly utilized in commercial aquaria is an open question. As a first step in assessing the viability of this practice, we (i) characterized microbial communities from water and sand filtration systems for four habitats at the Tennessee Aquarium and (ii) examined the abundance and anammox potential of Planctomycetes using culture-independent approaches. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed distinct, yet stable, microbial communities and the presence of Planctomycetes (~1–15% of library reads) in all sampled habitats. Preliminary metagenomic analyses identified the genetic potential for multiple complete nitrogen metabolism pathways. However, no known genes diagnostic for the anammox reaction were found in this survey. To better understand the diversity of this group of bacteria in these systems, a targeted Planctomycete-specific 16S rRNA gene-based PCR approach was used. This effort recovered amplicons that share <95% 16S rRNA gene sequence identity to previously characterized Planctomycetes, suggesting novel strains within this phylum reside within aquaria.

Effects of Chlorella pyrenoidosa Supplementation on Water Quality, Shrimp Growth Performance, and Biofilm Bacterial Community Structure in Litopenaeus vannamei Aquaculture Systems

“…The results of this study showed that the decrease in the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes and the increase in the relative abundance of Acidobacteria in PBCA and PBCF resulted from the supplementation of C. pyrenoidosa to the PBC system. Planctomycetota can transform TAN and NO − 2 ─N to nitrogen under low DO conditions through the anammox pathway [34]. Compared with IBF, the relative abundance of Planctomycetota increased with increasing bacterial community diversity in biofilms.…”