Abstract
For comprehensive insights into the influences of sulfate on performance, microbial community and metabolic pathways in the acidification phase of a two-phase anaerobic system, a laboratory-scale acidogenic bioreactor was continuously operated to treat wastewater with elevated sulfate concentrations from 2000 to 14000 mg/L. The results showed that the acidogenic bioreactor could achieve sulfate reduction efficiency of greater than 70% for influent sulfate content less than 12000 mg/L. Increased sulfate induced the accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), especially propionate and butyrate, which was the primary negative effects to system performance under the high-sulfate environment. High-throughput sequencing coupled with PICRUSt2 uncovered that the accumulation of VFAs was triggered by the decreasing of genes encoding short-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (EC: 1.3.8.1), regulating the transformation of propanoyl-CoA to propenoyl-CoA and butanoyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA of propionate and butyrate oxidation pathways, which made these two process hardly proceed. Besides, genes encoding (EC: 1.3.8.1) were mainly carried by order Clostridiales. Desulfovibrio was the most abundant sulfate-reducing bacteria and identified as the primary host of dissimilatory sulfate reduction functional genes. Functional analysis indicated the dissimilatory sulfate reduction process predominated under a low sulfate environment, but was not favored under the circumstance of high-sulfate. With the increase of sulfate, the assimilatory sulfate reduction process finally overwhelmed dissimilatory as the dominant sulfate reduction pathway in acidogenic bioreactor.
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We gratefully acknowledge generous support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51978328). We thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.
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Highlights
• Over 70% reduction of sulfate was achieved for sulfate less than 12000 mg/L.
• The decrease of genes encoding (EC: 1.3.8.1) induced the accumulation of VFAs.
• The sulfate reduction genes were primary carried by genus Desulfovibrio.
• Sulfate favored assimilatory, but inhibited dissimilatory sulfate reduction process.
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Li, J., Li, A., Li, Y. et al. PICRUSt2 functionally predicts organic compounds degradation and sulfate reduction pathways in an acidogenic bioreactor. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 16, 47 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1481-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1481-8