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Metagenomic analysis revealed the sulfur- and iron- oxidation capabilities of heterotrophic denitrifying sludge

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Abstract

Heterotrophic denitrification is widely applied in wastewater treatment processes to remove nitrate. However, the ability of the heterotrophic denitrifying sludge to use inorganic matter as electron donors to perform autotrophic denitrification has rarely been investigated. In this study, we enriched heterotrophic denitrifying sludge and demonstrated its sulfur- and iron- oxidizing abilities and denitrification performance with batch experiments. Based on high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes, high diversity and abundance of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB) (e.g., Sulfuritalea, Thiobacillus, and Thiothrix) and iron (II)-oxidizing bacteria (FeOB) (e.g., Azospira and Thiobacillus) were observed. Metagenomic sequencing and genome binning results further suggested that the SOB in the heterotrophic denitrifying sludge were mainly Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria instead of Gammaproteobacteria and Epsilonproteobacteria. The similarities of potential iron-oxidizing genes with known sequences were very low (32–51%), indicating potentially novel FeOB species in this system. The findings of this study suggested that the heterotrophic denitrifying sludge harbors diverse mixotrophic denitrifying bacterial species, and based on this finding, we proposed that organic carbon and inorganic electron donors (e.g., sulfur, thiosulfate, and iron) could be jointly used in engineering practices according to the quality and quantity of wastewater to balance the cost and efficiency of the denitrification process.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program (BE2019635), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51608256) and the Open Fund of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control (KHK1804), A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 210023, Nanjing, China

    Kailong Huang, Qiaoling Li, Haohao Sun, Xu-Xiang Zhang, Hongqiang Ren & Lin Ye

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, 210044, Nanjing, China

    Kailong Huang

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  1. Kailong Huang
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Correspondence to Lin Ye.

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Huang, K., Li, Q., Sun, H. et al. Metagenomic analysis revealed the sulfur- and iron- oxidation capabilities of heterotrophic denitrifying sludge. Ecotoxicology 30, 1399–1407 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-020-02307-z

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