Title
Operation-driven heterogeneity and overlooked feed-associated populations in global anaerobic digester microbiome
Author
Mei, Ran (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
Nobu, Masaru K. (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST))
Narihiro, Takashi (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST))
Kuroda, Kyohei (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; Nagaoka University of Technology)
Muñoz Sierra, Julian (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering) 
Wu, Zhuoying (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
Ye, Lin (Nanjing University)
Lee, Patrick K.H. (City University of Hong Kong)
Lee, P.H.L. (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
van Lier, J.B. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)
McInerney, Michael J. (University of Oklahoma)
Kamagata, Yoichi (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST))
Liu, Wen Tso (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
Date
2017-11-01
Abstract
Anaerobic digester (AD) microbiomes harbor complex, interacting microbial populations to achieve biomass reduction and biogas production, however how they are influenced by operating conditions and feed sludge microorganisms remain unclear. These were addressed by analyzing the microbial communities of 90 full-scale digesters at 51 municipal wastewater treatment plants from five countries. Heterogeneity detected in community structures suggested that no single AD microbiome could be defined. Instead, the AD microbiomes were classified into eight clusters driven by operating conditions (e.g., pretreatment, temperature range, and salinity), whereas geographic location of the digesters did not have significant impacts. Comparing digesters populations with those present in the corresponding feed sludge led to the identification of a hitherto overlooked feed-associated microbial group (i.e., the residue populations). They accounted for up to 21.4% of total sequences in ADs operated at low temperature, presumably due to ineffective digestion, and as low as 0.8% in ADs with pretreatment. Within each cluster, a core microbiome was defined, including methanogens, syntrophic metabolizers, fermenters, and the newly described residue populations. Our work provides insights into the key factors shaping full-scale AD microbiomes in a global scale, and draws attentions to the overlooked residue populations.
Subject
Anaerobic digester
Feed sludge
Microbiome
Operation
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0ee27ef2-e834-4755-9345-681581173b00
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2017.07.050
Embargo date
2019-07-24
ISSN
0043-1354
Source
Water Research, 124, 77-84
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
journal article
Rights
© 2017 Ran Mei, Masaru K. Nobu, Takashi Narihiro, Kyohei Kuroda, Julian Muñoz Sierra, Zhuoying Wu, Lin Ye, Patrick K.H. Lee, P.H.L. Lee, J.B. van Lier, Michael J. McInerney, Yoichi Kamagata, Wen Tso Liu