Structure and function of microbial aggregates in wastewater treatment [Elektronische Ressource] : floc formation and aerobic ammonia anaerobic ammonium oxidation / Markus Christian Schmid

Mas

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• Biologie

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• Publié par: technische_universitat_munchen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 29 Mo

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Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie



Structure and function of microbial aggregates in wastewater
treatment: Floc formation and aerobic ammonia/anaerobic
ammonium oxidation


Markus Christian Schmid



Vollständiger Abdruck der von der
Fakultät Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan
für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt
der Technischen Universität München

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines
Doktors der Naturwissenschaften
genehmigten Dissertation.


Vorsitzender: Univ.- Prof. Dr. Gert Forkmann
Prüfer der Dissertation: 1. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Michael Wagner
2. Univ.- Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Schleifer


Die Dissertation wurde am 19.08.2002 bei der
Technischen Universität München eingereicht und durch die
Fakultät Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt
am17.10.2002 angenommen.





























My parents
Meinen ElternContents
5 A Introduction
6 A1 Wastewater treatment systems
6 A1.1 The activated sludge process
7 A1.2 The trickling filter
8 A1.3 The sequencing batch reactor
9 A1.4 The rotating biological contactor
10 A1.5 The moving bed reactor
10 A2. Biofilms in waste water treatment
11 A2.1 Biofilm structure and function
12 A2.2 Activated sludge flocs
13 A2.3 Granular sludge
14 A3 Ammonia/ammonium oxidation in microbial biofilms
15 A3.1 The aerobic ammonia oxidation
19 A3.2 The anaerobic ammonia oxidation
22 A4 Scope of the thesis

B Materials and Methods 25
B1. Sampled environments 25
B2. Isolation of high molecular weight DNA 25
B2.1 Extraction of DNA from pure cultures 25
B2.2 Extraction of DNA from Biofilm samples 26
B2.2.1 Mechanical EPS and cell wall disruption 26
B2.2.2 Enzymatic digestion of EPS 26
B3. Polymerase chain reaction 28
B4. Gel retardation amoA amplificates 29
B5. Cloning of PCR products 30
B5.1 Transformation of PCR products 30
B5.2 Screening of plasmids by restriction digestion 30
B6. Determination of nucleotide sequences 31
B7. Phylogenetic inference 32
B7.1 Phylogenetic analysis of rRNA sequences 33

1Contents
B7.2 Phylogenetic analysis of amoA sequences 34
B8 Probe design 35
B9. Fluorescence in situ hybridization 35
B10. Confocal laser scanning microscopy 38
B11 Image analysis 39

C Results 41
C1. Characterization of activated sludge flocs 41
C1.1 Evaluation of the 3D volume measurement 41
C1.2 Physical floc properties 42
C1.3 Chemical composition of activated sludge 43
C1.4 Microbial population structure of activated sludge flocs 43
C2. Characterization of the of the population structure and distribution in 44
aerobic granular sludge
C2.1. Physiological properties of the aerobic granular sludge 44
C2.2 Microbial population composition of the aerobic granular sludge 44
C2.2.1 Investigation of the microbial population structure by FISH 44
C2.2.2 Determination of the microbial population structure by the full 45
cycle 16S rRNA approach
C2.2.3 Spatial distribution of “active” microorganisms within the 49
granule
C3 Phylogenetic analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization of aerobic 49
ammonia oxidizing bacteria
C3.1 The ammonia oxidizing population of the wastewater treatment 49
plant in Kraftisried
C3.1.1 In situ characterization of the population structure of ammonia 50
oxidizing bacteria
C3.1.2 Comparative amoA sequence analysis 50
C3.3 AmoA based phylogenetic analysis of the ammonia oxidizer 51
population in waste water treatment plants
C3.4 Phylogenetic analysis of alkaliphilic ammonia oxidizing isolates 52
from Mongolian soda lakes
2Contents
C4 Phylogeny and in situ detection of anaerobic ammonia oxidizing 52
bacteria
C4.1 Discovery of a new anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacterium 52
C4.1.1 In situ detection of ammonia oxidizing bacteria in trickling 53
filter 2 with previously published oligonucleotide probes
C4.1.2 Planctomycetales specific 16 rDNA sequence analysis of 53
the biofilm in trickling filter 2
C4.1.3 Probe design specific for the newly discovered anaerobic 54
ammonium oxidizer
C4.1.4 Quantification of the anaerobic ammonium oxidizer 54
population in trickling filter 2
C4.1.5 Aerobic ammonia oxidizers in the biofilm of trickling filter 2 55
C4.2 Analysis of the rRNA operon of anaerobic ammonium oxidizing 55
bacteria
C4.2.1 Helix 9 of the 16S rRNA of anaerobic ammonium oxidizing 55
bacteria contains an insertion
C4.2.2 Phylogenetic analysis of the rRNA operon of the anaerobic 56
ammonium oxidizing bacteria
C4.2.3 Design of an oligonucleotide probe targeting the 23S rRNA 57
of all anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria
C4.3 In situ detection of anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria 57
using intergenic spacer region (ISR) targeted oligonucleotide probes

60 D Discussion
D1. Characterization of activated sludge flocs 60
D2. Development and characterization of aerobic granules 62
D3. Detection of aerobic ammonium oxidation by a 16S rRNA and 63
amoA gene based approach
D4. Detection of anaerobic ammonium oxidation in the environment 65

68 E Summary/Zusammenfassung
72F References
3Contents
83 List of Publications

Appendix
Appendix A: Combined Molecular and Conventional Analyses of Nitrifying AI-XI
Bacterium Diversity in Activated Sludge: Nitrosococcus
mobilis and Nitrospira-Like Bacteria as Dominant Populations
Appendix B: Molecular evidence for genus level diversity of bacteria BI-XV
capable of catalyzing anaerobic ammonium oxidation
Appendix C: Phylogeny of all recognized species of ammonia oxidizers CI-XVI
based on comparative 16S rRNA and amoA sequence
analysis:Implications for molecular diversity surveys
Appendix D: Isolation and properties of obligatly chemolithoautotrophic DI-IX
and extremely alkali-tolerant ammonia-oxidizing bacteria
from Mongolian soda lakes
Appendix E: 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer and 23S rDNA of anaerobic EI-XI
ammonium oxidizing bacteria: implications for phylogeny and
in situ detection
Appendix F: Characterization of activated sludge flocs by confocal laser FI-XIII
scanning microscopy and image analysis

Danksagung

Curriculum vitae







4A Introduction
A Introduction

Since the first humans began to settle, they started to produce waste and wastewater in an
excessive way. Their uncontrolled disposal within the cities caused outbreaks of serious diseases
like typhus or cholera, which forced many lives. With the beginning of the industrialization in
ththe 19 century and the exponential increase of produced waste, strategies to clarify sewage
compounds were developed (e.g. Kröhnke, 1900). During the last century, various changes and
improvements were applied to these techniques. Today for treatment of large amounts of
municipal wastewater most commonly the activated sludge system (see below) is used.
Nevertheless, this method is often hampered by serious problems, like sludge bulking caused by
activated sludge flocs with poor settling ability or by complete breakdowns of nitrification. Since
nitrification, which is the oxidation of ammonia –one of the most toxic nitrogen compounds in
sewage–, over nitrite to nitrate, is a central process in nutrient removal via wastewater treatment,
nitrification failure results in environmental pollution.
Though wastewater treatment systems are vital to our environment, they are often poorly
understood. The general introduction of this thesis will give a brief summary of the current
knowledge in wastewater treatment with special regard to (i) attached and suspended biofilms
like activated sludge flocs, and (ii) ammonium/ammonia oxidation. In addition, it will
summarize problems of common microbiological techniques for the examination of wastewater
treatment systems.
5A Introduction
A1 Wastewater treatment systems

This section provides a short introduction of commonly used and recently introduced wastewater
treatment systems, which were investigated in this study.

A1.1 The activated sludge process

The most common technique in biological wastewater treatment is the activated sludge process
(Tchobanoglous and Burton, 1991). It consists of an aerated suspension of a mixed microbial
culture, which spontaneously forms flocs. The aeration is applied by compressed air, by pure
oxygen or by a mechanical setup and fulfills two essential functions. It provides (i) a steady
upflow or turbulence with a rate exactly balancing the settling velocity of the activated sludge
(Figure 1) and (ii) the oxygen required for the microbial oxidation of waste water compounds
like ammonia. After a certain dwell of the sewage in the aerated basin, it is transferred to a
secondary clarifier, where the flocs are l