Journal Article

Diversity of the resident microbiota in a thermophilic municipal biogas plant

Weiss, Agnes, Jérôme, Valérie, Mayer, Helmut K, Freitag, Ruth

2008

Overview

Biogas plants continuously convert biological wastes mainly into a mixture of methane, CO₂ and H₂O--a conversion that is carried out by a consortium of bacteria and archaea. Especially in the municipal plants dedicated towards waste treatment, the reactor feed may vary considerably, exposing the resident microbiota to a changing variety of substrates. To evaluate how and if such changes influence the microbiology, an established biogas plant (6,600 m³, up to 600 m³ biogas per h) was followed over the course of more than 2 years via polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rRNA genes and subsequent sequencing. Both the bacterial and the archaeal community remained stable over the investigation. Of the bacterial consortium, about half of the sequences were in decreasing order of occurrence: Thermoacetogenium sp., Anaerobaculum mobile, Clostridium ultunense, Petrotoga sp., Lactobacillus hammesii, Butyrivibrio sp., Syntrophococcus sucromutans, Olsenella sp., Tepidanaerobacter sp., Sporanaerobacter acetigenes, Pseudoramibacter alactolyticus, Lactobacillus fuchuensis or Lactobacillus sakei, Lactobacillus parabrevis or Lactobacillus spicheri and Enterococcus faecalis. The other half matched closely to ones from similar habitats (thermophilic anaerobic methanogenic digestion). The archaea consisted of Methanobrevibacter sp., Methanoculleus bourgensis, Methanosphaera stadtmanae, Methanimicrococcus blatticola and uncultured Methanomicrobiales. The role of these species in methane production is discussed.

• Publisher: Berlin/Heidelberg : Springer-Verlag,Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Anaerobaculum / Archaea / Archaea - classification / Archaea - genetics / Archaea - isolation & purification / Archaea - metabolism / Bacteria / Bacteria - classification / Bacteria - genetics / Bacteria - isolation & purification / Bacteria - metabolism / Biodiversity / Biogas / Biogas plant / Biological and medical sciences / Bioreactors - microbiology / Biotechnology / Biotransformation / Butyrivibrio / Carbon dioxide / Carbon Dioxide - metabolism / Cloning / Clostridium / Clostridium ultunense / Consortia / denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis / DGGE / DNA, Archaeal - genetics / DNA, Bacterial - genetics / DNA, Ribosomal - genetics / Electrophoresis / Enterococcus faecalis / Environmental Biotechnology / Food / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Gene sequencing / genes / habitats / Hot Temperature / Laboratories / Lactobacillus / Lactobacillus fuchuensis / Lactobacillus sakei / Life Sciences / Methane / Methane - metabolism / methane production / Methanobrevibacter / Methanoculleus / Methanoculleus bourgensis / Methanogenic consortium / Methanomicrobiales / Microbial Genetics and Genomics / Microbiology / Microbiota / Microorganisms / Molecular Sequence Data / Municipal solid waste / Olsenella / Petrotoga / Phylogeny / Plasmids / Polymerase chain reaction / Power plants / Pseudoramibacter alactolyticus / Reactors / ribosomal RNA / RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics / rRNA 16S / Sewage - microbiology / Studies / Syntrophococcus sucromutans / Waste treatment / wastes / Water - metabolism