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Lysozyme regulates the extracellular polymer of activated sludge and promotes the formation of electroactive biofilm

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Abstract

The formation of electroactive biofilm from activated sludge on electrode surface is a key step to construct a bio-electrochemical system, yet it is greatly limited by the poor affinity between the bacteria and the electrode interface. Herein, we report a new method to promote the formation of electroactive biofilm by regulating the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) content in activated sludge with lysozyme. The investigation of the effect of lysozyme treatment on the content of extracellular polymers and the biofilm formation of electroactive bacteria suggests that lysozyme can improve the permeability of the positive bacterial cell membrane and thus increase the EPS content in the activated sludge. The characterizations of electrochemical activity, surface morphology and community structure of the anode biofilm indicate that increasing EPS content promotes the adhesion of the mixed bacteria in the activated sludge on the electrode and results in denser biofilms with better conductivities. The microbial fuel cell (MFC) inoculated with the sludge of high EPS content exhibits the power density up to 2.195 W/m2, much higher than that inoculated with the untreated sludge (1.545 W/m2). The strategy of adjusting EPS content in activated sludge with a biological enzyme can effectively enhance the ability of the bacterial community to form biofilms and exhibits great application potentials in the construction of high efficiency bio-electrochemical systems.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support from the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for Local College Student (No. S202010431030 and No. S202010431046), Foundation of Qilu University of Technology of Cultivating Subject for Biology and Biochemistry (No. 202017).

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  1. Xindi Jia and Xiaoliang Liu contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biobased Material and Green Papermaking, Qilu University of Technology, Shandong Academy of Sciences, Jinan, 250353, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Xindi Jia & Qinzheng Yang

  2. Department of Bioengineering, Qilu University of Technology, Shandong Academy of Sciences, Jinan, 250353, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Xindi Jia, Xiaoliang Liu, Kaili Zhu, Xinxin Zheng, Zhiyuan Yang, Xue Yang, Yunhua Hou & Qinzheng Yang

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  1. Xindi Jia
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Contributions

XJ Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-Original draft preparation. XL Visualization, Writing-Original draft preparation. KZ: Software, Data curation, Writing-Original draft preparation. XZ and ZY Investigation, Validation. XY and YH Supervision, Methodology. QY Methodology, Writing-Reviewing and Editing.

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Correspondence to Xue Yang or Qinzheng Yang.

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Jia, X., Liu, X., Zhu, K. et al. Lysozyme regulates the extracellular polymer of activated sludge and promotes the formation of electroactive biofilm. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 45, 1065–1074 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-022-02727-7

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