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The performance of two sets of primers targeting variable regions of the 16S rRNA gene V1–V3 and V4 was compared in their ability to describe changes of bacterial diversity and temporal turnover in full-scale activated sludge. Duplicate sets of high-throughput amplicon sequencing data of the two 16S rRNA regions shared a collection of core taxa that were observed across a series of twelve monthly samples, although the relative abundance of each taxon was substantially different between regions. A case in point was the changes in the relative abundance of filamentous bacteria Thiothrix, which caused a large effect on diversity indices, but only in the V1–V3 data set. Yet the relative abundance of Thiothrix in the amplicon sequencing data from both regions correlated with the estimation of its abundance determined using fluorescence in situ hybridization. In nonmetric multidimensional analysis samples were distributed along the first ordination axis according to the sequenced region rather than according to sample identities. The dynamics of microbial communities indicated that V1–V3 and the V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene yielded comparable patterns of: 1) the changes occurring within the communities along fixed time intervals, 2) the slow turnover of activated sludge communities and 3) the rate of species replacement calculated from the taxa–time relationships. The temperature was the only operational variable that showed significant correlation with the composition of bacterial communities over time for the sets of data obtained with both pairs of primers. In conclusion, we show that despite the bias introduced by amplicon sequencing, the variable regions V1–V3 and V4 can be confidently used for the quantitative assessment of bacterial community dynamics, and provide a proper qualitative account of general taxa in the community, especially when the data are obtained over a convenient time window rather than at a single time point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in the world demand for food poses a challenge to our ability to sustain soil fertility and sustainability. The increasing use of no-till agriculture, adopted in many areas of the world as an alternative to conventional farming, may contribute to reduce the erosion of soils and the increase in the soil carbon pool. However, the advantages of no-till agriculture are jeopardized when its use is linked to the expansion of crop monoculture. The aim of this study was to survey bacterial communities to find indicators of soil quality related to contrasting agriculture management in soils under no-till farming. Four sites in production agriculture, with different soil properties, situated across a west-east transect in the most productive region in the Argentinean pampas, were taken as the basis for replication. Working definitions of Good no-till Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Poor no-till Agricultural Practices (PAP) were adopted for two distinct scenarios in terms of crop rotation, fertilization, agrochemicals use and pest control. Non-cultivated soils nearby the agricultural sites were taken as additional control treatments. Tag-encoded pyrosequencing was used to deeply sample the 16S rRNA gene from bacteria residing in soils corresponding to the three treatments at the four locations. Although bacterial communities as a whole appeared to be structured chiefly by a marked biogeographic provincialism, the distribution of a few taxa was shaped as well by environmental conditions related to agricultural management practices. A statistically supported approach was used to define candidates for management-indicator organisms, subsequently validated using quantitative PCR. We suggest that the ratio between the normalized abundance of a selected group of bacteria within the GP1 group of the phylum Acidobacteria and the genus Rubellimicrobium of the Alphaproteobacteria may serve as a potential management-indicator to discriminate between sustainable vs. non-sustainable agricultural practices in the Pampa region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial communities were examined in replicate lab-scale activated sludge reactors after a period of several months of enrichment with non-ionic nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPE) surfactants. Four sequential batch reactors were fed with synthetic sewage, two of which received additionally NPE. Small subunit rDNA-derived denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles and 16S rDNA clone libraries were dominated by clones of Gammaproteobacteria class. Sequences of the other codominant rDNA phylotypes observed only in DGGE from NPE-amended reactors were, respectively, associated with the Group III of the Acidobacteria phylum. Intriguingly, 16S rRNA content from abundant Gammaproteobacteria cells was unexpectedly low. In addition to Acidobacteria, rRNA-derived DGGE profiles were dominated by members of the order Burkholderiales (of the Betaproteobacteria) and of the genus Sphingomonas (a member of the Alphaproteobacteria). Specific oligonucleotide probes for the selected ribotypes were designed and applied for quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction and fluorescence in situ hybridization, confirming their dominance in treated reactors. The parallel abundance of unique phylotypes in replicate reactors implies a distinctive selection of dominant organisms, which are better adapted to specialized niches in the highly selective environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to investigate whether functions encoded in the metagenome could improve our ability to understand the link between microbial community structures and functions in activated sludge. By analyzing data sets from six industrial and six municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), covering different configurations, operational conditions, and geographic regions, we found that wastewater influent composition was an overriding factor shaping the metagenomic composition of the activated sludge samples. Community GC content profiles were conserved within treatment plants on a time scale of years and between treatment plants with similar influent wastewater types. Interestingly, GC contents of the represented phyla covaried with the average GC contents of the corresponding WWTP metagenome. This suggests that the factors influencing nucleotide composition act similarly across taxa and thus the variation in nucleotide contents is driven by environmental differences between WWTPs. While taxonomic richness and functional richness were correlated, shotgun metagenomics complemented taxon-based analyses in the task of classifying microbial communities involved in wastewater treatment systems. The observed taxonomic dissimilarity between full-scale WWTPs receiving influent types with varied compositions, as well as the inferred taxonomic and functional assignment of recovered genomes from each metagenome, were consistent with underlying differences in the abundance of distinctive sets of functional categories. These conclusions were robust with respect to plant configuration, operational and environmental conditions, and even differences in laboratory protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Sediminibacterium comprises species present in diverse natural and engineered environments. Here, we report for the first time the genome sequences of the type strain Sediminibacterium salmoneum NJ-44 (NBRC 103935) and Sediminibacterium sp. strain C3 (BNM541), isolated from activated sludge, a valuable model for the study of substrate-dependent autoaggregation.

Biological degradation of domestic and industrial wastewater by activated sludge depends on a common process of separation of the diverse self-assembled and self-sustained microbial flocs from the treated wastewater. Previous surveys of bacterial communities indicated the presence of a common core of bacterial phyla in municipal activated sludge, an observation consistent with the concept of ecological coherence of high taxonomic ranks. The aim of this work was to test whether this critical feature brings about a common pattern of abundance distribution of high bacterial taxa in industrial and domestic activated sludge, and to relate the bacterial community structure of industrial activated sludge with relevant operational parameters. We have applied 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes to evaluate bacterial communities in full-scale biological wastewater treatment plants sampled at different times, including seven systems treating wastewater from different industries and one plant that treats domestic wastewater, and compared our datasets with the data from municipal wastewater treatment plants obtained by three different laboratories. We observed that each industrial activated sludge system exhibited a unique bacterial community composition, which is clearly distinct from the common profile of bacterial phyla or classes observed in municipal plants. The influence of process parameters on the bacterial community structure was evaluated using constrained analysis of principal coordinates (CAP). Part of the differences in the bacterial community structure between industrial wastewater treatment systems were explained by dissolved oxygen and pH. Despite the ecological relevance of floc formation for the assembly of bacterial communities in activated sludge, the wastewater characteristics are likely to be the major determinant that drives bacterial composition at high taxonomic ranks., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper presents data obtained using an indigenous microbial community contained in anaerobic sediments (mud) collected from the shore of the Río de La Plata River (South America). After the sedimentary microbial fuel cells were assembled the evolution of current and power vs. time was studied. Two types of commercially available graphite materials were used as electrodes, which differ mainly in shape and size. In some experiments, an external carbon source (acetate) increased the power generation rate. The maximum power density observed in the aforementioned condition was 19.57 ± 0.35 and 8.72 ± 1.39 mW/m(2) using rod and graphite disk electrodes, respectively. The better performance of the rod electrodes can be explained, at least in part, by an enhanced rate of mass transport by radial diffusion. DGGE fingerprints were used to study the electrogenic community growing over the electrodes., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

One of the main functions of environmental biotechnology is to address the study of microbial communities that provide essential services to society. Beyond the similarities with industrial and agricultural microbiology, the unique features exhibited by environmental biotechnology, such as process objectives, biomass characteristics and type and mode of feeding (substrates), allow a clear distinction from the other related disciplines. Recent advances in microbial ecology, ecophysiology, genomics and process engineering are herein reviewed to illustrate how the integration of the new knowledge can help overcome the shortcomings of classic microbiological analyses to understand, predict and optimize the performance of wastewater treatment.

We have investigated bacterial populations relevant to nitrification in a full-scale activated sludge plant receiving wastewater from a petroleum refinery showing unstable nitrification. Inhibition of ammonia oxidation was related to phenol concentration according to a model of non-competitive inhibition. While the number of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) did not correlate with nitrification performance, the total number of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) dropped considerably during periods of nitrite accumulation or no nitrification. Diversity of nitrifiers in the sludge of the full-scale facility was examined at a time of full nitrification with the construction of clone libraries of ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) gene and of the 16S rRNA gene of NOB. Nucleotide sequences of amoA gene belonged to one dominant population, associated with Nitrosomonas europaea, and to a minor population related to the Nitrosomonas nitrosa lineage. The majority of sequences retrieved in the NOB-like clone library also clustered within a single operational taxonomic unit. The high dominance of Nitrobacter over Nitrospira and the low diversity of nitrifying bacteria observed in this wastewater treatment plant might account for the increased risk of failure in the presence of disturbances., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)