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Community shifts in a well-operating agricultural biogas plant: how process variations are handled by the microbiome

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive, long-term microbiological study of a continuously operated, mesophilic, agricultural biogas plant fed with whole-crop silages of maize and rye, cattle manure and cattle slurry. The microbial community structure was accessed by high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. For the characterisation of the microbial dynamics, the community profiling method terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) in combination with a cloning-sequencing approach as well as a LC-MS/MS approach for protein identification were applied. Our results revealed that the anaerobic digestion is a highly sensitive process: small variations in the process performance induce fluctuations in the microbial community composition and activity. In this context, it could be proven that certain microbial species were better adapted to changing process condition such as temperature (interspecies competition) and that there is a physiological compensation between different microorganisms so that the reactor efficiency was not adversely affected despite of structural and functional changes within the microbial community.

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Acknowledgments

S. Theuerl, F. Kohrs, I. Maus and R. Kausmann were supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), grant numbers 22010711, 22028711 and 22028811 (joint research project Biogas-Biocoenosis) and 22027707 (joint research project BiogasEnzyme).

The authors would like to thank Kerstin Mundt for her excellent technical support in the laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Bioengineering, Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim e.V. (ATB), Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469, Potsdam, Germany

    Susanne Theuerl & Michael Klocke

  2. Bioprocess Engineering, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany

    Fabian Kohrs, Dirk Benndorf & Udo Reichl

  3. Bioprocess Engineering, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Sandtorstraße 1, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany

    Erdmann Rapp & Udo Reichl

  4. Institute for Genome Research and System Biology, Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Universitätsstraße 27, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany

    Irena Maus, Daniel Wibberg, Andreas Schlüter & Alfred Pühler

  5. Department Technology Assessment and Substance Cycles, Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim e.V., Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469, Potsdam, Germany

    Robert Kausmann & Monika Heiermann

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  1. Susanne Theuerl
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  2. Fabian Kohrs
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Correspondence to Susanne Theuerl.

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Theuerl, S., Kohrs, F., Benndorf, D. et al. Community shifts in a well-operating agricultural biogas plant: how process variations are handled by the microbiome. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 7791–7803 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6627-9

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