Temporal dynamics of bacterial communities and predicted nitrogen metabolism genes in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant

Fan, Xiao-Yan; Pan, Kai-Ling; Li, Dingchang; Dai, Huihui

doi:10.1039/c7ra10704h

Cited by 80 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Ammonium concentrations alone may not explain comammox Nitrospira abundances. In contrast to published studies reporting low abundances of comammox Nitrospira in activated sludge flocs [7, [19][20][21], a recent PCR-based study found that comammox Nitrospira amoA genes were more abundant than those of AOB in activated sludge samples from eight separate 530 WWTPs, despite relatively high ammonium concentrations [22]. This suggests that, as seen for AOA [e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

“…Consistent with a low ammonium niche, comammox Nitrospira have been detected in drinking water systems [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. First identified from water treatment system metagenome sequences [5,6], most wastewaterassociated comammox Nitrospira belong to clade A [5, 7,12,[14][15][16][17][18], albeit with abundances generally lower than those reported for AOA and AOB [7,[18][19][20][21]. Nonetheless, amoA gene 60 abundances of comammox Nitrospira may outnumber those of AOB in activated sludge samples 4 in some WWTPs [12, 18,22], and comammox Nitrospira have been enriched in wastewater treatment reactors with low dissolved oxygen conditions, suggesting that comammox bacteria have an important role in ammonia oxidation in these reactors [15,17].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the high abundance of amoA transcripts from comammox Nitrospira detected in activated sludge suggests 65 that these bacteria actively contribute to nitrification [23]. Previous studies examining comammox Nitrospira in WWTPs focused primarily on activated sludge secondary treatment systems and sequencing batch reactors [12,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. To date, no studies have investigated comammox Nitrospira in biofilm-based tertiary wastewater treatment systems.Rotating biological contactors (RBCs; Figure 1A) represent a full-scale tertiary system 70 treating municipal waste from ~132,000 residents of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.…”

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confidence: 99%

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High functional diversity among Nitrospira populations that dominate rotating biological contactor microbial communities in a municipal wastewater treatment plant

Spasov

Tsuji

Hug

et al. 2019

Preprint

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AbstractNitrification, the oxidation of ammonia to nitrate via nitrite, is an important process in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Members of the Nitrospira genus that contribute to complete ammonia oxidation (comammox) have only recently been discovered and their relevance to engineered water treatment systems is poorly understood. This study investigated distributions of Nitrospira, ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in biofilm samples collected from tertiary rotating biological contactors (RBCs) of a municipal WWTP in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Using quantitative PCR (qPCR), 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and metagenomics, our results demonstrate that Nitrospira species strongly dominate RBC biofilm samples and that comammox Nitrospira outnumber all other nitrifiers. Genome bins recovered from assembled metagenomes reveal multiple populations of comammox Nitrospira with distinct spatial and temporal distributions, including several taxa that are distinct from previously characterized Nitrospira members. Diverse functional profiles imply a high level of niche heterogeneity among comammox Nitrospira, in contrast to the sole detected AOA representative that was previously cultivated and characterized from the same RBC biofilm. Our metagenome bins also reveal two cyanase-encoding populations of comammox Nitrospira, suggesting an ability to degrade cyanate, which has not been shown previously for Nitrospira that are not strict nitrite oxidizers. This study demonstrates the importance of RBCs as model systems for continued investigation of environmental factors that control the distributions and activities of AOB, AOA, comammox Nitrospira, and other nitrite oxidizers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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High functional diversity among Nitrospira populations that dominate rotating biological contactor microbial communities in a municipal wastewater treatment plant

Spasov

Tsuji

Hug

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…All known comammox are members of the genus Nitrospira and possess the full genetic complement for both ammonia and nitrite oxidation (9,10). Metagenomic evidence of the presence of comammox in drinking water distribution systems (11,12), groundwater-fed rapid sand filters (13)(14)(15), wastewater treatment processes (16)(17)(18)(19), and agriculture soils (20) has also been reported.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ubiquity and Diversity of Complete Ammonia Oxidizers (Comammox)

Xia

Wang

Zhu

et al. 2018

Appl Environ Microbiol

181

142

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The discovery of complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox) refutes the century-old paradigm that nitrification requires the activity of two types of microbes. Determining the distribution and abundance of comammox in various environments is important for revealing the ecology of microbial nitrification within the global nitrogen cycle. In this study, the ubiquity and diversity of comammox were analyzed for samples from different types of environments, including soil, sediment, sludge, and water. The results of a two-step PCR using highly degenerate primers (THDP-PCR) and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) supported the relatively high abundance of comammox in nearly half of all samples tested, sometimes even outnumbering canonical ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). In addition, a relatively high proportion of comammox in tap and coastal water samples was confirmed via analysis of metagenomic data sets in public databases. The diversity of comammox was estimated by comammox-specific partial nested PCR amplification of the ammonia monooxygenase subunit A (amoA) gene, and phylogenetic analysis of comammox AmoA clearly showed a split of clade A into clades A.1 and A.2, with the proportions of clades A.1, A.2, and B differing among the various environmental samples. Moreover, compared to the amoA genes of AOB and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), the comammox amoA gene exhibited higher diversity indices. The ubiquitous distribution and high diversity of comammox indicate that they are likely overlooked contributors to nitrification in various ecosystems. IMPORTANCE The discovery of complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox), which oxidize ammonia to nitrate via nitrite, refutes the century-old paradigm that nitrification requires the activity of two types of microbes and redefines a key process in the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle. Understanding the functional relationships between comammox and other nitrifiers is important for ecological studies on the nitrogen cycle. Therefore, the diversity and contribution of comammox should be considered during ecological analyses of nitrifying microorganisms. In this study, a ubiquitous and highly diverse distribution of comammox was observed in various environmental samples, similar to the distribution of canonical ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. The proportion of comammox was relatively high in coastal water and sediment samples, whereas it was nearly undetectable in open-ocean samples. The ubiquitous distribution and high diversity of comammox indicate that these microorganisms might be important contributors to nitrification.

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“…AOA and anammox bacteria are widespread in WWTPs (Park et al, 2006;Bai et al, 2012;, but the presence of comammox bacteria is nonubiquity, which may be outcompeted by non-comammox Nitrospira (Gonzalez-Martinez et al, 2016). Nevertheless, the contribution of archaeal ammonia-oxidation, anammox and comammox processes to nitrogen removal are different over studies (Park et al, 2006;Bai et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2015;Gonzalez-Martinez et al, 2016;Fan et al, 2017;Pan et al, 2018), which might be related to different operational parameters and treatment biotechnologies over sampling WWTPs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of nitrogen removal processes and microbial communities in eight full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plants

Yan

Xie

Wang

et al. 2019

Appl Env Biotechnol

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Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) face great challenges in developing countries, such as China, due to increasingly strict integrated wastewater discharge standard, especially for ammonium. Thus, it is very important to understand the limiting factor for ammonium removal in WWTPs. In this study, samples from 8 full-scale municipal WWTPs with different treatment processes in Pearl River Delta (PRD) area were evaluated. Bacterial and archaeal communities were investigated by high-throughput sequencing, activity of aerobic ammonium and nitrite oxidation, denitrification and anammox processes were evaluated. Nitrite, nitrate and TP concentration were strongly correlated with bacterial and archaeal composition in WWTPs based on canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Aerobic ammonium oxidation activities were over 10 times lower than aerobic nitrite oxidation, denitrification and anammox activities in WWTPs samples, which indicated nitrogen removal activities in WWTPs were limited by aerobic ammonium oxidation, because of lack of nitrite/nitrate for denitrification and anammox. Moreover, a technology-dependent shaping of microbial diversity and nitrogen removal activity was observed. The highest bacterial diversity and nitrogen removal activities were achieved in sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and Modified Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic (MAAO) processes, which implied the advantage of these two treatment technologies in nitrogen removal. Therefore, this study suggested enhancing activity of aerobic ammonium oxidation might be a potential solution, for promoting ammonium removal and benefiting sustainable management of WWTPs in future.

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Temporal dynamics of bacterial communities and predicted nitrogen metabolism genes in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant

Abstract: Dynamics of bacterial communities and nitrogen metabolism genes in a full-scale WWTP as revealed by Illumina sequencing and PICRUSt.

Cited by 80 publications

References 49 publications

High functional diversity among Nitrospira populations that dominate rotating biological contactor microbial communities in a municipal wastewater treatment plant

High functional diversity among Nitrospira populations that dominate rotating biological contactor microbial communities in a municipal wastewater treatment plant

Ubiquity and Diversity of Complete Ammonia Oxidizers (Comammox)

Evaluation of nitrogen removal processes and microbial communities in eight full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plants

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