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Methylophaga and Hyphomicrobium can be used as target genera in monitoring saline water methanol-utilizing denitrification

  • Environmental Microbiology - Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Which bacterial taxonomic groups can be used in monitoring saline water methanol-utilizing denitrification and whether nitrate is transformed into N2 in the process are unclear. Therefore, methylotrophic bacterial communities of two efficiently functioning (nitrate/nitrite reduction was 63–96 %) tropical and cool seawater reactors at a public aquarium were investigated with clone library analysis and 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA genes. Transformation of nitrate into N2 was confirmed using 15N labeling in incubation of carrier material from the tropical reactor. Combining the data with previous study results, Methylophaga and Hyphomicrobium were determined to be suitable target genera for monitoring the function of saline water methanol-fed denitrification systems. However, monitoring was not possible at the single species level. Interestingly, potential nitrate-reducing methylotrophs within Filomicrobium and closely related Fil I and Fil II clusters were detected in the reactors suggesting that they also contributed to methylotrophic denitrification in the saline environment.

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Acknowledgments

We thank H. Devlin, B. Thamdrup and S. Hallin for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This study was funded by Maa-ja Vesitekniikan Tuki ry (A.J.R.) and the Academy of Finland (projects 286642 to A.J.R. and 120089 to M.T.), as well as the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator project 615146 (M.T.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, FI-33101, Tampere, Finland

    Antti J. Rissanen

  2. Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Antti J. Rissanen & Marja Tiirola

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Anne Ojala

  4. Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Anne Ojala

  5. SEA LIFE, Helsinki, Tivolitie 10, FI-00510, Helsinki, Finland

    Markus Dernjatin & Jouni Jaakkola

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  1. Antti J. Rissanen
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Online Resource 1 Hierarchical clustering analysis (UPGMA) of relative abundance of OTUs (using Bray-Curtis distances) in 16S rRNA gene clone library analyses of AQUAR_T and AQUAR_C in 2008 and 2010 (PDF 13 kb)

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Rissanen, A.J., Ojala, A., Dernjatin, M. et al. Methylophaga and Hyphomicrobium can be used as target genera in monitoring saline water methanol-utilizing denitrification. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 43, 1647–1657 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-016-1839-2

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