Electrical selection for planktonic sludge microbial community function and assembly

Aijie Wang; Ke Shi; Daliang Ning; Haoyi Cheng; Hongcheng Wang; Wenzong Liu; Shuhong Gao; Zhiling Li; Jinglong Han; Bin Liang; Jizhong Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2021.117744

Electrical selection for planktonic sludge microbial community function and assembly

Water Res. 2021 Nov 1:206:117744. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117744. Epub 2021 Oct 8.

Authors

Aijie Wang¹, Ke Shi², Daliang Ning³, Haoyi Cheng⁴, Hongcheng Wang⁴, Wenzong Liu⁴, Shuhong Gao⁴, Zhiling Li², Jinglong Han⁴, Bin Liang⁵, Jizhong Zhou³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518055, China. Electronic address: waj0578@hit.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
³ Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518055, China. Electronic address: liangbin1214@hit.edu.cn.

PMID: 34653795
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117744

Abstract

Electrostimulated hydrolysis acidification (eHA) has been used as an efficient biological pre-treatment of refractory industrial wastewater. However, the effects of electrostimulation on the function and assembly of planktonic anaerobic sludge microbial communities are poorly understood. Using 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic sequencing, we investigated planktonic sludge microbial community structure, composition, function, assembly, and microbial interactions in response to electrostimulation. Compared with a conventional hydrolysis acidification (HA) reactor, the planktonic sludge microbial communities selected by electrostimulation promoted biotransformation of the azo dye Alizarin Yellow R. The taxonomic and functional structure and composition were significantly shifted upon electrostimulation with azo dyes degraders (e.g. Acinetobacter and Dechloromonas) and electroactive bacteria (e.g. Pseudomonas) being enriched. More microbial interactions between fermenters and decolorizing and electroactive bacteria, as well as fewer interactions between different fermenters evolved in the eHA microbial communities. Moreover, the decolorizing bacteria were linked to the higher abundance of genes encoding for azo- and nitro-reductases and redox mediator (e.g. ubiquinone) biosynthesis involved in the transformation of azo dye. Microbial community assembly was more driven by deterministic processes upon electrostimulation. This study offers new insights into the effects of electrostimulation on planktonic sludge microbial community function and assembly, and provides a promising strategy for the manipulation of anaerobic sludge microbiomes in HA engineering systems.

Keywords: Azo dye biotransformation; Electroselection; Hydrolysis acidification (HA); Microbial community assembly; Microbial interaction; Planktonic sludge microbial community.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors
Microbiota*
Plankton
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
Sewage*
Wastewater

Substances

RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Sewage
Waste Water