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Detection of comammox bacteria in full-scale wastewater treatment bioreactors using tag-454-pyrosequencing

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Abstract

The nitrogen cycle has been expanded with the recent discovery of Nitrospira strains that can conduct complete ammonium oxidation (commamox). Their importance in the nitrogen cycle within engineered ecosystems has not yet been analyzed. In this research, the community structure of the Bacteria domain of six full-scale activated sludge systems and three autotrophic nitrogen removal systems in the Netherlands and China has been investigated through tag-454-pyrosequencing. The phylogenetic analyses conducted in the present study showed that just a few of the Nitrospira sequences found in the bioreactors were comammox. Multivariate redundancy analysis of nitrifying genera showed an outcompetition of Nitrosomonas and non-comammox Nitrospira. Operational data from the bioreactors suggested that comammox could be favored at low temperature, low nitrogen substrate, and high dissolved oxygen. The non-ubiquity and low relative abundance of comammox in full-scale bioreactors suggested that this phylotype is not very relevant in the nitrogen cycle in wastewater treatment plants.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support given by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Aalto, Finland; the Institute of Water Research of the University of Granada, Spain; and the Department of Biotechnology of the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands; as well, the authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the personnel of the wastewater treatment plants of Amsterdam West, Breda, Dokhaven, Harnaschpolder, Kortenoord, Vianen, Apeldoorn, Meihua East, and Olburgen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Built Environment, School of engineering, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15200, Aalto, FI-00076, Espoo, Finland

    Alejandro Gonzalez-Martinez & Riku Vahala

  2. Institute of Water Research, University of Granada, C/Ramón y Cajal, 4, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Alejandro Rodriguez-Sanchez & Jesus Gonzalez-Lopez

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Technical University of Delft, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC, Delft, The Netherlands

    M. C. M van Loosdrecht

Authors
  1. Alejandro Gonzalez-Martinez
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  2. Alejandro Rodriguez-Sanchez
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  3. M. C. M van Loosdrecht
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  4. Jesus Gonzalez-Lopez
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  5. Riku Vahala
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alejandro Gonzalez-Martinez.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Responsible editor: Gerald Thouand

Electronic supplementary material

Figure S1

Bayesian interference tree cladogram of all comammox candidate OTUs in the AS systems compared to Daims et al. 2015 phylogeny. (GIF 3045 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 41227 kb)

Figure S2

Bayesian interference tree cladogram of all comammox candidate OTUs in the AS systems compared to van Kessel et al. 2015 phylogeny. (GIF 1432 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 17903 kb)

Figure S3

Bayesian interference tree cladogram of all comammox candidate OTUs in the ANR systems compared to Daims et al. 2015 phylogeny. (GIF 2913 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 38637 kb)

Figure S4

Bayesian interference tree cladogram of all comammox candidate OTUs in the ANR systems compared to van Kessel et al. 2015 phylogeny. (GIF 1671 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 19940 kb)

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Gonzalez-Martinez, A., Rodriguez-Sanchez, A., van Loosdrecht, M.C.M. et al. Detection of comammox bacteria in full-scale wastewater treatment bioreactors using tag-454-pyrosequencing. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 25501–25511 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7914-4

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