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Structural and Functional Responses of a Sewage Microbial Community to Dilution-Induced Reductions in Diversity

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Abstract

The relationship between functional redundancy and microbial community structure–diversity was examined using laboratory incubations to ensure constant environmental conditions. Serial dilutions of a sewage microbial community were prepared, used to inoculate sterile sewage, and maintained in batch culture. Probability suggests that dilution of the initial community should remove rare organism types, creating mixtures of cells differing in diversity. Regrowth of the diluted mixtures generated communities similar in abundance but differing in community structure and relative diversity (as determined using two DNA fingerprinting techniques and dilution-to-extinction analysis of community-level physiological profiles). The in situ function of each regrown community was examined by monitoring the short-term uptake of five different 14C-labeled compounds (glucose, acetate, citrate, palmitic acid, and an amino acid mixture). No significant differences were detected between treatments in either the rate of uptake of a substrate or the efficiency with which each community assimilated each compound. The fact that the activity of the original community was the same as that of a community regrown from an inoculum containing fewer that 100 cells (10−6 dilution) indicates that functional redundancy was quite high in this system. For each organism type eliminated during the dilution process, at least one of the remaining types was able to provide the same function at the same level as the lost one. Further research is necessary to determine what impact this functional redundancy may have on overall ecosystem function and stability.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a NASA GSRP grant (NGT10-52620) and the University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences' Moore Research Award. The authors would like to acknowledge Sarika Rhode Chaudhary, Michael Lowit, Linda Blum, Kathleen Daumer, and Michael Roberts for assistance with laboratory work.

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  1. NASA Space Life Sciences Laboratory, Mail Code YA-E4-B, Kennedy Space Center, FL, 32899, USA

    Rima B. Franklin

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400123, Charlottesville, VA, 22904-4123, USA

    Aaron L. Mills

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Correspondence to Aaron L. Mills.

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Franklin, R.B., Mills, A.L. Structural and Functional Responses of a Sewage Microbial Community to Dilution-Induced Reductions in Diversity. Microb Ecol 52, 280–288 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-006-9033-0

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