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Metagenomic Analysis of the Sludge Microbial Community in a Lab-Scale Denitrifying Phosphorus Removal Reactor

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Abstract

Denitrifying phosphorus removal is an attractive wastewater treatment process due to its reduced carbon source demand and sludge minimization potential. In the present study, the metagenome of denitrifying phosphorus removal sludge from a lab-scale anaerobic–anoxic SBR was generated by Illumina sequencing to study the microbial community. Compared with the aerobic phosphorus removal sludge, the denitrifying phosphorus removal sludge demonstrated quite similar microbial community profile and microbial diversity with sludge from Aalborg East EBPR WWTP. Proteobacteria was the most dominant phylum; within Proteobacteria, β-Proteobacteria was the most dominant class, followed by α-, γ-, δ-, and ε-Proteobacteria. The genes involved in phosphate metabolism and biofilm formation reflected the selective pressure of the phosphorus removal process. Moreover, ppk sequence from DPAO was outside the Accumulibacter clusters, which suggested different core phosphorus removal bacteria in denitrifying and aerobic phosphorus removal systems. In a summary, putative DPAO might be a novel genus that is closely related between Accumulibacter and Dechloromonas within Rhodocyclus. The microbial community and metabolic profiles achieved in this study will eventually help to improve the understanding of key microorganisms and the entire community in order to improve the phosphorus removal efficiency of EBPR processes.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge the financial support of the China Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (2012ZX07313001), Shenzhen Basic Research Project (JC201105160582A) and Natural Science Foundation of China (31200104).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China

    Xiao-Mei Lv, Ming-Fei Shao, Ji Li & Chao-Lin Li

  2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Water Resource Utilization and Environmental Pollution Control, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China

    Xiao-Mei Lv, Ming-Fei Shao, Ji Li & Chao-Lin Li

  3. Shenzhen Public Technological Service Platform for Urban Waste Energy Regeneration, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China

    Xiao-Mei Lv, Ming-Fei Shao, Ji Li & Chao-Lin Li

  4. E417, HIT Campus Shenzhen University Town Xili, Shenzhen, 518055, People’s Republic of China

    Ji Li

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  1. Xiao-Mei Lv
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Correspondence to Ji Li.

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Table S1

Metagenomes of wastewater treatment unrelated sludge samples (DOCX 16 kb)

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Lv, XM., Shao, MF., Li, J. et al. Metagenomic Analysis of the Sludge Microbial Community in a Lab-Scale Denitrifying Phosphorus Removal Reactor. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 175, 3258–3270 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-015-1491-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-015-1491-8

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