Effects of different carbon sources on enhanced biological phosphorus removal and “Candidatus Accumulibacter” community composition under continuous aerobic condition

• Published in: Applied microbiology and biotechnology Vol. 101; no. 23-24; pp. 8607 - 8619
• Main Authors: Nittami, Tadashi, Mukai, Masayuki, Uematsu, Keisuke, Yoon, Li Wan, Schroeder, Sarah, Chua, Adeline Seak May, Fukuda, Junji, Fujita, Masafumi, Seviour, Robert J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2017; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acetates - metabolism; Acetic acid; Aerobic conditions; Aerobiosis; Anaerobic conditions; Batch reactors; Betaproteobacteria - classification; Betaproteobacteria - metabolism; Biological effects; Biological treatment; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bioreactors - microbiology; Biota; Biotechnology; Candidatus Accumulibacter; Carbon; Carbon - metabolism; Carbon sources; Community composition; Environmental Biotechnology; Life Sciences; Methods; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Observations; Phosphorus; Phosphorus - metabolism; Phosphorus in the body; Phosphorus removal; Propionates - metabolism; Propionic acid; Proteobacteria; Sewage; Stability; Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA); Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR); Real-time qPCR; Accumulibacter; ); Polyphosphate kinase gene; “; Candidatus Accumulibacter; Polyphosphate kinase gene (ppk)
• ISSN: 0175-7598; 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/s00253-017-8571-3

Previous studies have shown that enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) performance under continuous aerobic conditions always eventually deteriorates; however, the speed at which this happens depends on the carbon source supplied. The published data suggest that propionate is a better carbon source than acetate is for maintaining operational stability, although it is not clear why. A lab-scale sequencing batch reactor was run initially under conventional anaerobic/aerobic conditions with either acetate or propionate as the carbon source. Chemical and microbiological analyses revealed that both sources performed as expected for such systems. When continuous aerobic conditions were imposed on both these established communities, marked shifts of the “ Candidatus Accumulibacter” clades were recorded for both carbon sources. Here, we discuss whether this shift could explain the prolonged EBPR stability observed with propionate.