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Pyrosequence analysis of bacterial communities in aerobic bioreactors treating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-contaminated soil

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Abstract

Two aerobic, lab-scale, slurry-phase bioreactors were used to examine the biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in contaminated soil and the associated bacterial communities. The two bioreactors were operated under semi-continuous (draw-and-fill) conditions at a residence time of 35 days, but one was fed weekly and the other monthly. Most of the quantified PAHs, including high-molecular-weight compounds, were removed to a greater extent in the weekly-fed bioreactor, which achieved total PAH removal of 76%. Molecular analyses, including pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes, revealed significant shifts in the soil bacterial communities after introduction to the bioreactors and differences in the abundance and types of bacteria in each of the bioreactors. The weekly-fed bioreactor displayed a more stable bacterial community with gradual changes over time, whereas the monthly-fed bioreactor community was less consistent and may have been more strongly influenced by the influx of untreated soil during feeding. Phylogenetic groups containing known PAH-degrading bacteria previously identified through stable-isotope probing of the untreated soil were differentially affected by bioreactor conditions. Sequences from members of the Acidovorax and Sphingomonas genera, as well as the uncultivated “Pyrene Group 2” were abundant in the bioreactors. However, the relative abundances of sequences from the Pseudomonas, Sphingobium, and Pseudoxanthomonas genera, as well as from a group of unclassified anthracene degraders, were much lower in the bioreactors compared to the untreated soil.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS; grant number 5 P42 ES005948).

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  1. Stephen D. Richardson

    Present address: Solutions-IES, Inc., Raleigh, NC, 27607, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7431, USA

    David R. Singleton, Stephen D. Richardson & Michael D. Aitken

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  1. David R. Singleton
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  2. Stephen D. Richardson
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Correspondence to David R. Singleton.

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Fig. S1

DGGE gel showing the bacterial community profiles of bioreactor and feed soil. Abbreviations for the samples are as in Fig. 4. Colors of the gel image were inverted and the contrast adjusted to best show the bands. Unused lanes were cropped from the final image. (PDF 270 kb)

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Singleton, D.R., Richardson, S.D. & Aitken, M.D. Pyrosequence analysis of bacterial communities in aerobic bioreactors treating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-contaminated soil. Biodegradation 22, 1061–1073 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-011-9463-3

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