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Comparison of Fatty Acid Composition and Kinetics of Phosphorus‐Accumulating Organisms and Glycogen‐Accumulating Organisms
Author(s) -
Wang J.C.,
Park J.K.,
Whang L.M.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143001x143448
Subject(s) - glycogen , biochemistry , phosphorus , enhanced biological phosphorus removal , chemistry , fatty acid , substrate (aquarium) , biology , food science , activated sludge , ecology , sewage treatment , organic chemistry , environmental engineering , engineering
It was demonstrated that glycogen‐accumulating organisms (GAOs) were able to compete with phosphorus‐accumulating organisms (PAOs) for acetate in a biological phosphorus removal (BPR) process, leading to a loss of BPR capability. Cellular fatty acid composition, which serves as a fingerprint for microbial identification, was used to determine microbial population change and to investigate the competition mechanisms of PAOs and GAOs. Analysis of cellular fatty acid composition indicated that PAOs grown with acetate and glucose were different species and that GAOs and PAOs grown with the same substrate were also different species. Glycogen‐accumulating organisms seemed to coexist with PAOs even in a well‐developed BPR process. The GAOs were able to accumulate more poly‐β‐hydroxybutyrate (PHB) and glycogen than PAOs during the anaerobic stage of the BPR process. The GAOs synthesized more in‐cell glycogen than PAOs. The growth rate for PAOs was always greater than that for GAOs at various acetate or glucose concentrations, while GAOs had higher acetate uptake and PHB synthesis rates than PAOs. Therefore, GAOs are thought to compete with PAOs only at long solids retention times (≤ 20 days).