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Organic loading rate and food-to-microorganism ratio shape prokaryotic diversity in a demo-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor treating domestic wastewater

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Abstract

We investigated the microbial community in an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating domestic wastewater (DW) during two different periods of organic loading rate (OLR) and food-to-microorganism (F/M) ratio. 16S rDNA clone libraries were generated, and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) analyses were performed. Fluctuations in the OLR and F/M ratio affected the abundance and the composition of the UASB prokaryotic community, mainly at the species level, as well as the performance of the UASB reactor. The qPCR analysis suggested that there was a decrease in the bacterial cell number during the rainy season, when the OLR and F/M ratio were lower. However, the bacterial diversity was higher during this time, suggesting that the community degraded more diversified substrates. The diversity and the abundance of the archaeal community were higher when the F/M ratio was lower. Shifts in the methanogenic community composition might have influenced the route of methane production, with methane produced by acetotrophic methanogens (dry season), and by hydrogenotrophic, methylotrophic and acetotrophic methanogens (rainy season). This study revealed higher levels of bacterial diversity, metabolic specialization and chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency of the DW UASB reactor during the rainy season.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Juliano Leal from Núcleo de Análise de Genoma e Expressão Gênica (NAGE) at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais for his technical assistance in the 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We appreciate the financial support provided by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Pró-reitoria de Pesquisa da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (PRPq-UFMG) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) in the form of a scholarship to Juliana Cardinali Rezende.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Juliana Cardinali-Rezende, Edmar Chartone-Souza & Andréa M. A. Nascimento

  2. Departamento de Engenharia Sanitária e Ambiental, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Juliana C. Araújo, Paulo G. S. Almeida & Carlos A. L. Chernicharo

  3. Department of Molecular Biology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, c/ Darwin 2, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    José L. Sanz

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  1. Juliana Cardinali-Rezende
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  3. Paulo G. S. Almeida
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Correspondence to Andréa M. A. Nascimento.

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Fig. S1

Phylogenetic tree of the bacterial community in the sludge sampled during the dry season (SD), which was constructed using the neighbor-joining method. The numbers at the nodes indicate the percentages of occurrence in 1,000 bootstrapped trees. Methanococcus nannielii (AY196675) was used as the outgroup. Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 72378 kb)

Fig. S2

Phylogenetic tree of the bacterial community in the sludge sampled during the rainy season (SR), which was constructed using the neighbor-joining method. The numbers at the nodes indicate the percentages of occurrence in 1,000 bootstrapped trees. Methanococcus nannielii (AY196675) was used as the outgroup. Supplementary material 2 (TIFF 94325 kb)

Fig. S3

Phylogenetic tree of the archaeal community from sludge samples during the dry (SD) and rainy (SR) seasons, which was constructed using the neighbor-joining method. The numbers at the nodes indicate the percentage of occurrence in 1,000 bootstrapped trees. Methanopyrus kandleri (U57340) was used as the outgroup. Supplementary material 3 (TIFF 53 kb)

Supplementary material 4 (DOCX 50 kb)

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Cardinali-Rezende, J., Araújo, J.C., Almeida, P.G.S. et al. Organic loading rate and food-to-microorganism ratio shape prokaryotic diversity in a demo-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor treating domestic wastewater. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 104, 993–1003 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-013-0018-y

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