Microbial Community Dynamics and Activity Link to Indigo Production from Indole in Bioaugmented Activated Sludge Systems

Performance and microbial community dynamics of electricity-assisted sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for treatment of saline petrochemical wastewater

High-salinity wastewater is often difficult to treat by common biological technologies due to salinity stress on the bacterial community. Electricity-assisted anaerobic technologies have significantly enhanced the treatment performance by alleviating the impact of salinity stress on the bacterial community, but electricity-assisted aerobic technologies have less been reported. Herein, a novel bio-electrochemistry system has been designed and operated in which a pair of stainless iron mesh-graphite plate electrodes were installed into a sequencing batch reactor (SBR, designated as S1) to strengthen the performance of saline petrochemical wastewater under aerobic conditions. The removal efficiency of phenol and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in S1 were 94.1 and 91.2%, respectively, on day 45, which was clearly higher than the removal efficiency of a single SBR (S2) and an electrochemical reactor (S3), indicating that a coupling effect existed between the electrochemical process and biodegradation. A certain amount of salinity (≤8000 mg/L) could enhance the treatment performance in S1 but weaken that in S2. Illumina sequencing revealed that microbial communities in S1 on days 45 and 91 were richer and more diverse than in S2, which suggests that electrical stimulation could enhance the diversity and richness of the microbial community, and reduce the negative effect of salinity on the microorganisms and enrich some salt-adapted microorganisms, thus improve the ability of S1 to respond to salinity stress. This novel bio-electrochemistry system was shown to be an alternative technology for the high saline petrochemical wastewater.

The Role of Enriched Microbial Consortium on Iron-Reducing Bioaugmentation in Sediments

Microbial iron reduction is an important biogeochemical process and involved in various engineered processes, including the traditional clay dyeing processes. Bioaugmentation with iron reducing bacteria (IRB) is generally considered as an effective method to enhance the activity of iron reduction. However, limited information is available about the role of IRB on bioaugmentation. To reveal the roles of introduced IRB on bioaugmentation, an IRB consortium enriched with ferric citrate was inoculated into three Fe(II)-poor sediments which served as the pigments for Gambiered Guangdong silk dyeing. After bioaugmentation, the dyeabilities of all sediments met the demands of Gambiered Guangdong silk through increasing the concentration of key agent [precipitated Fe(II)] by 35, 27, and 61%, respectively. The microbial community analysis revealed that it was the minor species but not the dominant ones in the IRB consortium that promoted the activity of iron reduction. Meanwhile, some indigenous bacteria with the potential of iron reduction, such as Clostridium, Anaeromyxobacter, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Geothrix, and Acinetobacter, were also stimulated to form mutualistic interaction with introduced consortium. Interestingly, the same initial IRB consortium led to the different community successions among the three sediments and there was even no common genus increasing or decreasing synchronously among the potential IRB of all bioaugmented sediments. The Mantel and canonical correspondence analysis showed that different physiochemical properties of sediments influenced the microbial community structures. This study not only provides a novel bioremediation method for obtaining usable sediments for dyeing Gambiered Guangdong silk, but also contributes to understanding the microbial response to IRB bioaugmentation.

Systematic investigation and microbial community profile of indole degradation processes in two aerobic activated sludge systems

Indole is widely spread in various environmental matrices. Indole degradation by bacteria has been reported previously, whereas its degradation processes driven by aerobic microbial community were as-yet unexplored. Herein, eight sequencing batch bioreactors fed with municipal and coking activated sludges were constructed for aerobic treatment of indole. The whole operation processes contained three stages, i.e. stage I, glucose and indole as carbon sources; stage II, indole as carbon source; and stage III, indole as carbon and nitrogen source. Indole could be completely removed in both systems. Illumina sequencing revealed that alpha diversity was reduced after indole treatment and microbial communities were significantly distinct among the three stages. At genus level, Azorcus and Thauera were dominant species in stage I in both systems, while Alcaligenes, Comamonas and Pseudomonas were the core genera in stage II and III in municipal sludge system, Alcaligenes and Burkholderia in coking sludge system. In addition, four strains belonged to genera Comamonas, Burkholderia and Xenophilus were isolated using indole as sole carbon source. Burkholderia sp. IDO3 could remove 100 mg/L indole completely within 14 h, the highest degradation rate to date. These findings provide novel information and enrich our understanding of indole aerobic degradation processes.