Abstract
Overgrowth of filamentous bacteria in activated sludge wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) leads to impaired sludge settleability, a condition known as bulking, which is a common operational problem worldwide. Filaments with the Eikelboom 0092 morphotype are commonly associated with such bulking episodes. Members of the uncultured B45 phylotype, which is embraced within the phylum Chloroflexi, were recently shown to exhibit this morphology. Although these organisms are among the most abundant populations recorded in activated sludge processes, nothing is known about their metabolic characteristics. In this study, a genome sequence, representing the B45 phylotype, was retrieved from a metagenome generated from an activated sludge WWTP. The genome consisted of two chromosomes and one plasmid, which were 4.0, 1.0 and 0.04 Mbps in size, respectively. A metabolic model was constructed for this organism, based on annotation of its genome, showing its ability to generate energy by respiration, utilizing oxygen, nitrite or nitrous oxide as electron acceptors, or by fermentation of sugars. The ability of B45 members to ferment sugars under anaerobic conditions was validated in situ with microautoradiography—fluorescence in situ hybridization. The provisional name of ‘Candidatus Promineofilum breve’ is proposed for this species. This study represents the first detailed information on an uncultured genus of filamentous organisms from activated sludge.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research (grant no. 4093-00127 A), Innovation Fund Denmark (EcoDesign and NomiGas), the Villum Foundation and Aalborg University. We acknowledge the LABGeM team at Genoscope for providing access to their automated annotation pipeline as well as for database maintenance and technical assistance. We would also like to thank Dr Tom Burton for his assistance with the naming etymology, and Valter Tandoi and Irena Čarman for supplying the B45-enriched sample used for the metagenome.
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McIlroy, S., Karst, S., Nierychlo, M. et al. Genomic and in situ investigations of the novel uncultured Chloroflexi associated with 0092 morphotype filamentous bulking in activated sludge. ISME J 10, 2223–2234 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2016.14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2016.14
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