Self-assembling a 1,4-dioxane-degrading consortium and identifying the key role of Shinella sp. through dilution-to-extinction and reculturing.

Importance: Assembling a functional microbial consortium and identifying key degraders involved in the degradation of 1,4-dioxane are crucial for the design of synergistic consortia used in enhancing the bioremediation of 1,4-dioxane-contaminated sites. However, due to the vast diversity of microbes, assembling a functional consortium and identifying novel degraders through a simple method remain a challenge. In this study, we reassembled 1,4-dioxane-degrading microbial consortia using a simple and easy-to-operate method by combining dilution-to-extinction and reculture techniques. We combined differential analysis of community structure and metabolic function and confirmed that Shinella species have a stronger 1,4-dioxane degradation ability than Xanthobacter species in the enriched consortium. In addition, a new dioxane-degrading bacterium was isolated, Shinella yambaruensis , which verified our findings. These results demonstrate that DTE and reculture techniques can be used beyond diversity reduction to assemble functional microbial communities, particularly to identify key degraders in contaminant-degrading consortia.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.