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Understanding of aerobic granulation enhanced by starvation in the perspective of quorum sensing

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

Three sequencing batch reactors (M1, M2, and M3) were set up to investigate the influence of different lengths of starvation time (3, 5, and 7 h) on aerobic granulation in the perspective of quorum sensing (QS). Autoinducer-2 (AI-2) level was quantified to evaluate the QS ability of aerobic granules. The results indicated that AI-2 level increased steadily during a cycle of sequencing batch reactors, suggesting that starvation was closely related to AI-2 secretion. In the long-term operation, aerobic granules cultivated using a prolonged starvation period had a better integrity and a higher level of cell adhesiveness despite a slower formation speed. With the extension of the starvation period, the total amount of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) displayed an increasing tendency. EPS with large molecular weight (MW) also reached a higher level using a prolonged starvation period. However, a higher level of AI-2 and cell adhesiveness was observed in M2, which might be related to more stable granules. The results implied that the starvation period could trigger AI-2 secretion and promoted the production of large MW EPS, leading to cell adhesiveness enhancement and granule formation. Therefore, a combination of different starvation periods was proposed in this study in order to improve aerobic granulation.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51108093, 51278128, and 41301332), Shanghai International Science and Technology Cooperation Fund (No. 14230700400), Outstanding Talent Plan of Fudan University (JJH1829029), and Key Laboratory of Reservoir Aquatic Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. RAE2014CB05B).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, No. 220 Handan Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Xiang Liu, Supu Sun, Buyun Ma & Chunli Wan

  2. Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design General Institute, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Chen Zhang

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

    Duu-Jong Lee

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  1. Xiang Liu
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  2. Supu Sun
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  4. Chen Zhang
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  6. Duu-Jong Lee
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Correspondence to Chunli Wan or Duu-Jong Lee.

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Liu, X., Sun, S., Ma, B. et al. Understanding of aerobic granulation enhanced by starvation in the perspective of quorum sensing. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 3747–3755 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-7246-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-7246-1

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