The structure of microbial communities of activated sludge of large-scale wastewater treatment plants in the city of Moscow

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 3458 - 14
• Main Authors: Begmatov, Shahjahon, Dorofeev, Alexander G., Kadnikov, Vitaly V., Beletsky, Alexey V., Pimenov, Nikolai V., Ravin, Nikolai V., Mardanov, Andrey V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02.03.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/326/171/1878; 631/326/2565; 631/326/2565/2134; 631/326/2565/855; 631/61/168; 631/61/252/171; Activated sludge; Ammonia; Anaerobic microorganisms; Bacteria; Bioreactors; Denitrification; Denitrification - genetics; Environmental factors; Humanities and Social Sciences; Microbial activity; Microbiomes; Microbiota - genetics; Microorganisms; Moscow; multidisciplinary; Municipal wastes; Municipal wastewater; Nitrification; Nitrogen; Organic matter; Organic phosphorus; Phosphorus; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; rRNA 16S; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sewage; Sewage - microbiology; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Wastewater - microbiology; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater treatment plants; Water Purification; Water treatment; Moscow
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07132-4

Microbial communities in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a key role in water purification. Microbial communities of activated sludge (AS) vary extensively based on plant operating technology, influent characteristics and WWTP capacity. In this study we performed 16S rRNA gene profiling of AS at nine large-scale WWTPs responsible for the treatment of municipal sewage from the city of Moscow, Russia. Two plants employed conventional aerobic process, one plant—nitrification/denitrification technology, and six plants were operated with the University of Cape Town (UCT) anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process. Microbial communities were impacted by the technology and dominated by the Proteobacteria , Bacteroidota and Actinobacteriota . WWTPs employing the UCT process enabled efficient removal of not only organic matter, but also nitrogen and phosphorus, consistently with the high content of ammonia-oxidizing Nitrosomonas sp. and phosphate-accumulating bacteria. The latter group was represented by Candidatus Accumulibacter, Tetrasphaera sp. and denitrifiers. Co-occurrence network analysis provided information on key hub microorganisms in AS, which may be targeted for manipulating the AS stability and performance. Comparison of AS communities from WWTPs in Moscow and worldwide revealed that Moscow samples clustered together indicating that influent characteristics, related to social, cultural and environmental factors, could be more important than a plant operating technology.