Protozoa in Wastewater Treatment: Function and Importance

Pauli, W.; Jax, Kurt; Berger, Sandra L.

doi:10.1007/10508767_3

Cited by 44 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…For the vast majority (over 98%) of the sequences that do match the nt database at this threshold, the best hit is to bacterial taxa (data not shown; see the supplemental bioinformatics methods for details). Since wastewater treatment plants are known to harbor many eukaryotes (27), this result likely reflects our DNA isolation strategy, which was designed to capture prokaryotic DNA, rather than the "true" ratio of prokaryotes to eukaryotes in the treatment plant.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Diversity of a North Carolina Wastewater Treatment Plant as Revealed by Pyrosequencing

Sanapareddy

Hamp

González

et al. 2009

Appl Environ Microbiol

150

101

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We report the results of pyrosequencing of DNA collected from the activated sludge basin of a wastewater treatment plant in Charlotte, NC. Using the 454-FLX technology, we generated 378,601 sequences with an average read length of 250.4 bp. Running the 454 assembly algorithm over our sequences yielded very poor assembly, with only 0.3% of our sequences participating in assembly of significant contigs. Of the 117 contigs greater than 500 bp long that were assembled, the most common annotations were to transposases and hypothetical proteins. Comparing our sequences to known microbial genomes showed nonspecific recruitment, indicating that previously described taxa are only distantly related to the most abundant microbes in this treatment plant. A comparison of proteins generated by translating our sequence set to translations of other sequenced microbiomes shows a distinct metabolic profile for activated sludge with high counts for genes involved in metabolism of aromatic compounds and low counts for genes involved in photosynthesis. Taken together, these data document the substantial levels of microbial diversity within activated sludge and further establish the great utility of pyrosequencing for investigating diversity in complex ecosystems.Although largely invisible in the urban landscape when they are functioning well, wastewater treatment plants are integral to the municipal obligation to protect public health, aquatic ecosystems, and the quality of life. At the heart of wastewater treatment plants is a process whereby a dense microbial consortium is employed to remove organic and nutrient contaminants. The microbes used to treat wastewater are a crucial tool in environmental protection. The current use of molecular techniques that do not require the isolation and cultivation of microorganisms (1, 33), including 16S rRNA analysis (6,13,20) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (8), have greatly expanded our understanding of wastewater microbial communities. Researchers have identified many bacteria of importance to wastewater treatment, including the bacteria involved in biological phosphorus removal (5, 16, 29), nitrifiers (8, 19, 25), denitrifiers (3, 12, 17), and methanogens (18, 36). Molecular techniques have also improved our understanding of fundamental processes such as nitrification and denitrification, as well as plant upsets, such as foaming (9, 24), which can decrease treatment efficiency.In this paper, we apply recently developed pyrosequencing technology to probe the molecular diversity of the aerobic basin of a wastewater treatment plant in Charlotte, NC. In line with other studies of complex microbial communities (28, 32), we observed astounding levels of diversity. We found that substantial regions of the genomes of the most prevalent microbes in the wastewater treatment plant are poorly described by existing sequence databases. Our results demonstrate that despite recent technological advances that allow identification of microorganisms, the microbial population of wastewater treatment plan...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Diversity of a North Carolina Wastewater Treatment Plant as Revealed by Pyrosequencing

Sanapareddy

Hamp

González

et al. 2009

Appl Environ Microbiol

150

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The biological removal mechanisms of pathogenic organisms include antibiosis, exposure to biocides, predations, and attack by litic bacteria, natural dieoff and competition for limiting nutrients or trace elements (Green et al, 1997). Predation of bacteria by protozoa has been reported to be the main mechanism that contribute to the removal of bacteria in wastewater treatment plants, and, more importantly, ciliates have been actually found to play a dominant role (Curds, 1992;Pauli et al, 2001). …”

Section: Characteristics Of Wastewatermentioning

confidence: 99%

Wastewater Protozoan-Driven Environmental Processes for the Protection of Water Resources

Momba¹

2010

Biomass

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“…Biological wastewater treatment relies on the collective action of different organisms present in treatment systems (Madoni 1994;Martins et al 2004;Pauli et al 2001). While bacteria play a key role in pollutant transformation and removal, microfauna (consisting of protozoa and micrometazoa), as the main consumers of various particles in wastewater, also affect the treatment performance through their predation (Curds 1982;Woombs and Laybourn-Parry 1986) and excretion of compounds stimulating bacterial growth (Ratsak et al 1996;Shen et al 1990) and promoting bacterial flocculation (Curds 1982;Pauli et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While bacteria play a key role in pollutant transformation and removal, microfauna (consisting of protozoa and micrometazoa), as the main consumers of various particles in wastewater, also affect the treatment performance through their predation (Curds 1982;Woombs and Laybourn-Parry 1986) and excretion of compounds stimulating bacterial growth (Ratsak et al 1996;Shen et al 1990) and promoting bacterial flocculation (Curds 1982;Pauli et al 2001). Insight into microfauna community composition is of great significance for a holistic understanding of activated sludge ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of the microfauna community in a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant experiencing sludge bulking

et al. 2013

European Journal of Protistology

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We investigated the dynamics of the microfauna community in activated sludge, with special reference to sludge bulking, in two parallel municipal wastewater treatment systems in Beijing, China over a period of 14 months. Annual cyclic changes in microfauna community structures occurred in both systems. RELATE analysis based on Spearman's Rank correlation indicated that microfauna community structures were highly correlated with the sludge volume index (SVI) (p < 0.001), which indicates sludge settleability. Nutrient conditions of raw sewage (p < 0.01) and hydraulic retention time (HRT) (p < 0.05) were also related to microfauna community structures. Abundances of the species Epistylis plicatilis and Vorticella striata increased significantly with an increase in SVI (p < 0.001) and decrease in water temperature (p < 0.001), suggesting that sludge bulking may have created favorable conditions for the two species, even under unfavorable temperature conditions. Sludge de-flocculation primarily due to the excessive growth of Microthrix parvicella-like filaments could be an important driving force for the microfauna community changes. The release of flocculated non-filamentous bacteria may represent a suitable food source for these species. The two species may be considered as potential bioindicators for sludge bulking.

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Protozoa in Wastewater Treatment: Function and Importance

Cited by 44 publications

References 11 publications

Molecular Diversity of a North Carolina Wastewater Treatment Plant as Revealed by Pyrosequencing

Molecular Diversity of a North Carolina Wastewater Treatment Plant as Revealed by Pyrosequencing

Wastewater Protozoan-Driven Environmental Processes for the Protection of Water Resources

Dynamics of the microfauna community in a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant experiencing sludge bulking

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