Physiological and Metagenomic Characterizations of the Synergistic Relationships between Ammonia- and Nitrite-Oxidizing Bacteria in Freshwater Nitrification
Mingwei Cai, Siu-Kin Ng, Chee Kent Lim, Hongyuan Lu, Yangyang Jia, Patrick K. H. Lee
Abstract
Nitrification plays a crucial role in global nitrogen cycling and treatment processes. However, the relationships between the nitrifier guilds of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) are still poorly understood, especially in freshwater habitats. This study examined the physiological interactions between the AOB and NOB present in a freshwater aquarium biofilter by culturing them, either together or separately, in a synthetic medium. Metagenomic and 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed the presence and the draft genomes ofNitrosomonas-like AOB as well asNitrobacter-like NOB in the cultures, including the first draft genome ofNitrobacter vulgaris. The nitrifiers exhibited different growth rates with different ammonium (NH4+) or nitrite concentrations (50-1,500 μM) and the growth rates were elevated under a high bicarbonate (HCO3-) concentration. The half-saturation constant (Ksfor NH4+), the maximum growth rate (μmax), and the lag duration indicated a strong dependence on the synergistic relationships between the two guilds. Overall, the ecophysiological and metagenomic results in this study provided insights into the phylogeny of the key nitrifying players in a freshwater biofilter and showed that interactions between the two nitrifying guilds in a microbial community enhanced nitrification.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 March 2018.
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Altmetric has tracked 23,498,099 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 67th percentile.
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