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Molecular characterization of mesophilic and thermophilic sulfate reducing microbial communities in expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactors

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Abstract

The microbial communities established in mesophilic and thermophilic expanded granular sludge bed reactors operated with sulfate as the electron acceptor were analyzed using 16S rRNA targeted molecular methods, including denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, cloning, and phylogenetic analysis. Bacterial and archaeal communities were examined over 450 days of operation treating ethanol (thermophilic reactor) or ethanol and later a simulated semiconductor manufacturing wastewater containing citrate, isopropanol, and polyethylene glycol 300 (mesophilic reactor), with and without the addition of copper(II). Analysis, of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis revealed a defined shift in microbial diversity in both reactors following a change in substrate composition (mesophilic reactor) and in temperature of operation from 30°C to 55°C (thermophilic reactor). The addition of copper(II) to the influent of both reactors did not noticeably affect the composition of the bacterial or archaeal communities, which is in agreement with the very low soluble copper concentrations (3–310 μg l−1) present in the reactor contents as a consequence of extensive precipitation of copper with biogenic sulfides. Furthermore, clone library analysis confirmed the phylogenetic diversity of sulfate-reducing consortia in mesophilic and thermophilic sulfidogenic reactors operated with simple substrates.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from the National Institute of Health (NIH grant TW00036) and the NSF/SRC Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing is acknowledged. M.A. was supported by fellowships from the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, and the Wageningen Institute for Environment and Climate Research. R.S.A. was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF-0137368). We are thankful to Hans G.H.J. Heilig for his excellent assistance with DGGE analyses.

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  1. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 21001, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Stephanie A. Freeman, Reyes Sierra-Alvarez & Jeremy Hollingsworth

  2. Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8033, 6700 EJ, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Stephanie A. Freeman, Mahmut Altinbas, Alfons J. M. Stams & Hauke Smidt

  3. Department of Environmental Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mahmut Altinbas

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  1. Stephanie A. Freeman
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  2. Reyes Sierra-Alvarez
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Correspondence to Reyes Sierra-Alvarez.

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Freeman, S.A., Sierra-Alvarez, R., Altinbas, M. et al. Molecular characterization of mesophilic and thermophilic sulfate reducing microbial communities in expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactors. Biodegradation 19, 161–177 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-007-9123-9

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