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Community Composition of Known and Uncultured Archaeal Lineages in Anaerobic or Anoxic Wastewater Treatment Sludge

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Microbial systems are widely used to treat different types of wastewater from domestic, agricultural, and industrial sources. Community composition is an important factor in determining the successful performance of microbial treatment systems; however, a variety of uncultured and unknown lineages exist in sludge that requires identification and characterization. The present study examined the archaeal community composition in methanogenic, denitrifying, and nitrogen-/phosphate-removing wastewater treatment sludge by Archaea-specific 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis using Illumina sequencing technology. Phylotypes belonging to Euryarchaeota, including methanogens, were most abundant in all samples except for nitrogen-/phosphate-removing wastewater treatment sludge. High levels of Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vent Group 6 (DHVEG-6), WSA2, Terrestrial Miscellaneous Euryarchaeotal Group, and Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotic Group were also detected. Interestingly, DHVEG-6 was dominant in nitrogen-/phosphate-removing wastewater treatment sludge, indicating that unclear lineages of Archaea still exist in the anaerobic wastewater treatment sludges. These results reveal a previously unknown diversity of Archaea in sludge that can potentially be exploited for the development of more efficient wastewater treatment strategies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by research grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS). The authors thank Aqua and Soil Environmental laboratory members of Aida A.A. and Maharajan N. for the critical reading of the manuscript; Furukawa A., Ohtsuki K., Chosei T., Okabe Y., Sakamoto K. and Watari T. for the assistance with the reactor operation; and Sato T. and Yamamoto M. for supporting the experiment and stimulating discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Systems Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, 1603-1, Kami-tomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata, 940-2188, Japan

    Kyohei Kuroda, Masashi Hatamoto, Nozomi Nakahara, Kenichi Abe & Takashi Yamaguchi

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-06, Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8579, Japan

    Kenichi Abe & Masanobu Takahashi

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Nagaoka National College of Technology, 888, Nishi-Katakai, Nagaoka, Niigata, 940-8532, Japan

    Nobuo Araki

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  1. Kyohei Kuroda
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Correspondence to Takashi Yamaguchi.

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Kuroda, K., Hatamoto, M., Nakahara, N. et al. Community Composition of Known and Uncultured Archaeal Lineages in Anaerobic or Anoxic Wastewater Treatment Sludge. Microb Ecol 69, 586–596 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0525-z

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