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Novel nitrifiers and comammox in a full-scale hybrid biofilm and activated sludge reactor revealed by metagenomic approach

  • Environmental biotechnology
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An Erratum to this article was published on 04 August 2016

Abstract

Biofilms are widely used in wastewater treatment for their particular enhancement of nitrogen removal and other significant advantages. In this study, the diversity and potential functions of nitrogen removal bacteria in suspended activated sludge (AS) and biofilm of a full-scale hybrid reactor were uncovered by metagenomes (∼34 Gb), coupled with PCR-based 454 reads (>33 K reads). The results indicated that the diversity and abundance of nitrifiers and denitrifiers in biofilm did not surpass that in AS, while more nitrification and denitrification genes were indeed found in biofilm than AS, suggesting that the increased nitrogen removal ability by applying biofilm might be attributed to the enhancement of removal efficiency, rather than the biomass accumulation of nitrogen removal bacteria. The gene annotation and phylogenetic analysis results revealed that AS and biofilm samples consisted of 6.0 % and 9.4 % of novel functional genes for nitrogen removal and 18 % and 30 % of new Nitrospira species for nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, respectively. Moreover, the identification of Nitrospira-like amoA genes provided metagenomic evidence for the presence of complete ammonia oxidizer (comammox) with the functional potential to perform the complete oxidation of ammonia to nitrate. These findings have significant implications in expanding our knowledge of the biological nitrogen transformations in wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Yuanqing Chao, Dr. Yanping Mao, and Dr. Ke Yu wish to thank HKU for the postgraduate studentship. Dr. Yanping Mao and Dr. Ke Yu appreciate HKU for the postdoctoral fellowship. The technical assistance of Dr. Feng Ju and Ms. Vicky Fung is greatly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Yuanqing Chao

  2. Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong

    Yuanqing Chao, Yanping Mao, Ke Yu & Tong Zhang

  3. College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Yuanqing Chao

  4. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Yanping Mao

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Correspondence to Tong Zhang.

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This study was funded by the Hong Kong General Research Fund (grant number 7198/10E) and new teachers’ scientific research project of Shenzhen University (2016008).

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Yuanqing Chao and Yanping Mao contribute equally to this work.

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Chao, Y., Mao, Y., Yu, K. et al. Novel nitrifiers and comammox in a full-scale hybrid biofilm and activated sludge reactor revealed by metagenomic approach. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 8225–8237 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7655-9

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