Abstract
The introduction of a gene, strain, or microbial consortium into an indigenous bacterial population is known as bioaugmentation. This technique has been proposed as an effective strategy for accelerating and enhancing the removal of recalcitrant and toxic compounds during wastewater treatment. In this study, three types of reactors were used to test whether quorum sensing plays an important role in bioaugmented systems. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction showed that the inoculated strain, HF-1, successfully colonized in the bioaugmented reactor. Meanwhile, no HF-1 colonization was observed in the quorum-quenching and non-bioaugmented reactors. Removal of nicotine in the bioaugmented reactor was almost 100 %, and removal of total organic carbon (TOC) was higher than 50 %. However, less than 20 % of nicotine and 30 % of TOC was removed in quorum-quenching and non-bioaugmented reactors. Moreover, the release of acylated homoserine lactones reached the threshold for HF-1 biofilm formation in bioaugmented reactors but not in quorum-quenching or non-bioaugmented reactors. The addition of porcine kidney acylase I, a quenching reagent, to the quorum-quenching reactor hampered the colonization of HF-1. Together, these results demonstrate that quorum sensing plays an important role in HF-1 colonization of bioaugmented systems.
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Abbreviations
- TOC:
-
Total organic carbon
- QS:
-
Quorum sensing
- AHLs:
-
Acylated homoserine lactones
- ISM:
-
Inorganic salt medium
- Non-BA:
-
Non-bioaugmented
- BA:
-
Bioaugmented
- QQ:
-
Quorum quenching
- RT-PCR:
-
Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
- RT-qPCR:
-
Reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction
- EPS:
-
Extracellular polymeric substances
- 3-oxo-C6-HSL:
-
N-3-oxo-hexanoyl-homoserine lactone
- C6-HSL:
-
N-hexanoyl-homoserine lactone
- 3-oxo-C8-HSL:
-
N-3-oxo-octanoyl-homoserine lactone
- C8-HSL:
-
N-octanoyl-homoserine lactone
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (21107095), the public technology research plan of Zhejiang province (2014C33028), the Special Foundation of Young Scientists of Zhejiang Gongshang University (QZ11-7), and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Y5110019).
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Responsible editor: Gerald Thouand
Kun Zhang and Xin Zheng contributed equally to this work.
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Zhang, K., Zheng, X., Shen, Ds. et al. Evidence for existence of quorum sensing in a bioaugmented system by acylated homoserine lactone-dependent quorum quenching. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 6050–6056 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3795-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3795-6