Disentangling Community Structure of Ecological System in Activated Sludge Core Communities, Functionality, and Functional Redundancy

• Published in: Microbial ecology Vol. 80; no. 2; pp. 296 - 308
• Main Authors: Chen, Huibin, Wang, Meiying, Chang, Sheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer Science + Business Media 01.08.2020; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Activated sludge; Aeration; Amaricoccus; Ammonia; Ammonium; Ammonium compounds; Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Candidatus Microthrix; Candidatus Nitrotoga; Community composition; Community structure; Denitrification; DNA; Ecology; Ecosystems; ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY; Foaming; Genera; Genes; Geoecology/Natural Processes; Haliscomenobacter; Identification; Life Sciences; Metabolic pathways; Microbial Ecology; Microbiology; Microbiota - physiology; Microorganisms; Nature Conservation; Nitrate reduction; Nitrification; nitrogen; Nitrogen fixation; Nitrogenation; Nitrosomonas; Novosphingobium; Ontario; Oxidation; Phosphorus; prediction; Redundancy; ribosomal DNA; rRNA 16S; Samples; Seasons; sequence analysis; Sequencing; Sewage - microbiology; Similarity; Sludge; Sphingomonas; Tetrasphaera; Thermomonas; Water Quality/Water Pollution; Zoogloea; Ontario; Activated sludge; Functional redundancy; Core community; Microbial community; Diversity; PICRUSt analysis
• DOI: 10.1007/s00248-020-01492-y
• ISSN: 0095-3628; 1432-184X

The microbial ecosystems of the sludge were characterized in terms of the core community structure, functional pathways, and functional redundancy through Illumina MiSeq sequencing and PICRUSt analysis on the activated sludge (AS) samples from an extended activated aeration process. Based on the identified OTU distribution, we identified 125 core community genera, including 3 abundant core genera and 21 intermittent abundant core genera. Putative genera Nitrosomonas, Nitrotoga, Zoogloea, Novosphingobium, Thermomonas, Amaricoccus, Tetrasphaera, Candidatus Microthrix, and Haliscomenobacter, which are associated with functions of nitrifying, denitrifying, phosphorus accumulating, and bulking and foaming, were found to present as the core community organisms in the AS sampled from the conventional extended aeration AS processes. The high-abundant nitrogen metabolic pathways were associated with nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA and ANRA), denitrification, and nitrogen fixation, while the ammonia oxidation–related genes (amo) were rarely annotated in the AS samples. Strict functional redundancy was not found with the AS ecosystem as it showed a high correlation between the community composition similarity and function similarity. In addition, the classified dominant core genera community was found to be sufficient to characterize the functionality of AS, which could invigorate applications of 16S rDNA MiSeq sequencing and PICRUSt for the prediction of functions of AS ecosystems.