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A Microbial Consortium Removing Phosphates under Conditions of Cyclic Aerobic-Anaerobic Cultivation

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Abstract—

Formation of a community of phosphate-accumulating microorganisms in a laboratory sequential batch reactor (SBR) ensuring alternated aerobic and anaerobic conditions during periodic removal and addition of the medium were investigated. The bioreactor removed 50% phosphorus from the incoming medium after 22 days from the start-up. Microscopy and X-ray microassay revealed the of cells of diverse morphology that contained phosphorus-enriched granules. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene fragments carried out on days 0, 8, 15, and 22 showed changes in the community composition and its decreasing diversity. On day 22, approximately twofold increase of the relative abundances of Bacteroidetes (up to 43% of the 16S rRNA gene sequences) and Proteobacteria of the classes alpha (up to 15%) and beta (up to 27%) was observed. While at the onset of the reactor operation, typical PAOs related to “Candidatus Accumulibacter” (class Betaproteobacteria) constituted 0.2% of the community, they were not detected on day 22. The most likely PAO candidates were beta-proteobacteria of the genus Dechloromonas, the share of which increased from 0.7 to 11% by the time of the highest phosphorus removal from the inflowing medium. The relative abundance of heterotrophs of the genus Zoogloea (family Rhodocyclaceae) increased from 0.1 to 11.5%.

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Funding

The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, projects 18-29-25016 (setup development and assembly, morphological analysis of the microbial community, microscopy, chemical analysis, and molecular analysis of ther microbial community during the bioreactor operation) and 18-34-00627 (analysis of the composition of the activated sludge microbial community) and was also partially supported by the Russian Federation Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Research Center of Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    A. V. Pelevina, Yu. Yu. Berestovskaya, V. A. Grachev, I. K. Dorofeeva, V. V. Sorokin, A. G. Dorofeev, A. Yu. Kallistova, Yu. A. Nikolaev & N. V. Pimenov

  2. Mosvodokanal OJSC, 105005, Moscow, Russia

    A. G. Dorofeev

  3. Institute of Bioengineering, Research Center of Biotechnology Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    R. Yu. Kotlyarov, A. V. Beletskii, N. V. Ravin & A. V. Mardanov

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  1. A. V. Pelevina
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  2. Yu. Yu. Berestovskaya
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  3. V. A. Grachev
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  4. I. K. Dorofeeva
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Contributions

VAG and AGD assembled and maintained the laboratory setup for PAO cultivation; VVS and IKD carried out electron microscopy; YYB, AVP, YAN, and NVP carried out chemical analysis, microscopy, data analysis, and writing of the article; RYK, AVB, NVR, and AVB isolated metagenomic DNA, sequenced and analyzed the 16S rRNA gene sequences, and participated in the preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to A. V. Pelevina.

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Translated by P. Sigalevich

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Pelevina, A.V., Berestovskaya, Y.Y., Grachev, V.A. et al. A Microbial Consortium Removing Phosphates under Conditions of Cyclic Aerobic-Anaerobic Cultivation. Microbiology 90, 66–77 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026261721010082

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