Open AccessPhylogeny and in situ identification of a novel gammaproteobacterium in activated sludge
Author(s) -
Schroeder Sarah,
Petrovski Steve,
Campbell Bradley,
McIlroy Simon,
Seviour Robert
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2009.01676.x
Subject(s) - enhanced biological phosphorus removal , activated sludge , biology , sequencing batch reactor , sewage treatment , pilot plant , effluent , wastewater , population , microbiology and biotechnology , pulp and paper industry , food science , waste management , environmental engineering , environmental science , demography , sociology , engineering
Failure of a continuously aerated sequencing batch reactor (SBR) pilot plant‐enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) process, designed to remove phosphorus from the clarified effluent from a conventional non‐EBPR wastewater treatment plant, was associated with the dominance ( c . 50% of the biovolume) of gammaproteobacterial coccobacilli. Flow cytometry and subsequent clone library generation from an enriched population of these Gammaproteobacteria showed that their 16S rRNA genes were most similar to partial clone sequences obtained from an actively denitrifying SBR community, and from anaerobic : aerobic EBPR communities. Under the SBR operating conditions used here, these cells stained for poly‐β‐hydroxyalkanoates, but never polyphosphate. Applying FISH probes designed against them in combination with microautoradiography showed that they could also assimilate acetate ‘aerobically’. FISH analyses of biomass samples from the full‐scale treatment plant providing the pilot plant feed showed that they were present there in high numbers. However, they were not detected by FISH in laboratory‐scale communities of the same aerated laboratory‐scale EBPR process even when EBPR had failed, or from several full‐scale EBPR plants or other activated sludge processes.