Synthetic periphyton as a model system to understand species dynamics in complex microbial freshwater communities

Lamprecht, Olga; Wagner, Bernd; Derlon, Nicolas; Tlili, Ahmed

doi:10.1038/s41522-022-00322-y

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…Besides the obvious cross feeding of exudates interactions between photoautotrophic microalgae and heterotrophic bacteria can be very diverse as evidenced from natural communities ( Amin et al, 2012 ) as well as synthetic communities for both marine ( Deng et al, 2022 ) and limnic conditions ( Lamprecht et al, 2022 ). We do not know the basis for the stability of Co_3 but the stable maintenance of the bacterial members suggests that bacteria are likely to support growth of the algae in a specific way.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A domesticated photoautotrophic microbial community as a biofilm model system for analyzing the influence of plastic surfaces on invertebrate grazers in limnic environments

Bakenhus,

Jongsma,

Michler-Kozma

et al. 2023

Front. Microbiol.

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The environmental fate of plastic particles in water bodies is influenced by microbial biofilm formation. Invertebrate grazers may be affected when foraging biofilms on plastics compared to biofilms on natural substrata but the mechanistic basis for these effects is unknown. For analyzing these effects in ecotoxicological assays stable and reproducible biofilm communities are required that are related to the environmental site of interest. Here, a defined biofilm community was established and used to perform grazing experiments with a freshwater snail. For this, snippets of different plastic materials were incubated in the photic zone of three different freshwater sites. Amplicon sequencing of biofilms formed on these snippets showed that the site of incubation and not the plastic material dominated the microbial community composition. From these biofilms, individual microbial strains as well as photoautotrophic consortia were isolated; these consortia consisted of heterotrophic bacteria that were apparently nourished by microalga. While biofilms formed by defined dual cultures of a microalga and an Alphaproteobacterium were not accepted by the snail P. fontinalis, a photoautotrophic consortium (Co_3) sustained growth and metabolism of this grazer. Amplicon sequencing revealed that consortium Co_3, which could be stably maintained on solid medium under photoautotrophic conditions, reproducibly formed biofilms of a defined composition on three different plastic materials and on glass surfaces. In conclusion, our study shows that the generation of domesticated photoautotrophic microbial communities is a valid novel approach for establishing laboratory ecotoxicological assays with higher environmental relevance than those based on defined microbiota.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A domesticated photoautotrophic microbial community as a biofilm model system for analyzing the influence of plastic surfaces on invertebrate grazers in limnic environments

Bakenhus,

Jongsma,

Michler-Kozma

et al. 2023

Front. Microbiol.

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“…These species were cultured in COMBO media, and their stock suspensions were prepared at a concentration of 1,000,000 particles mL –1 in COMBO media. Further details on the species and cultivation conditions can be found in previously published literature, see Lamprecht et al …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…,000,000 particles mL −1 in COMBO media. Further details on the species and cultivation conditions can be found in previously published literature, see Lamprecht et al31 2.2.3. Mineral Particles.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Differentiating Microplastics from Natural Particles in Aqueous Suspensions Using Flow Cytometry with Machine Learning

Wang,

Li,

Kroll

et al. 2024

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Microplastics (MPs) in natural waters are heterogeneously mixed with other natural particles including algal cells and suspended sediments. An easy-to-use and rapid method for directly measuring and distinguishing MPs from other naturally present colloids in the environment would expedite analytical workflows. Here, we established a database of MP scattering and fluorescence properties, either alone or in mixtures with natural particles, by stain-free flow cytometry. The resulting highdimensional data were analyzed using machine learning approaches, either unsupervised (e.g., viSNE) or supervised (e.g., random forest algorithms). We assessed our approach in identifying and quantifying model MPs of diverse sizes, morphologies, and polymer compositions in various suspensions including phototrophic microorganisms, suspended biofilms, mineral particles, and sediment. We could precisely quantify MPs in microbial phototrophs and natural sediments with high organic carbon by both machine learning models (identification accuracies over 93%), although it was not possible to distinguish between different MP sizes or polymer compositions. By testing the resulting method in environmental samples through spiking MPs into freshwater samples, we further highlight the applicability of the method to be used as a rapid screening tool for MPs. Collectively, this workflow can be easily applied to a diverse set of samples to assess the presence of MPs in a time-efficient manner.

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“…An ATS system consists of a long, sloping bed that supports biofilm formation of the so-called periphyton [10], which consists of a mixed benthic community that includes microalgae, bacteria, fungi, metazoans, and detritus. During biofilm development, sticky extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) secreted by certain bacteria and microalgae wrap around the cell surface and attach to the carrier, thereby causing the periphytic microorganisms to gather [28,29]. (Waste)water flows down the biofilm, while nutrients and pollutants are removed by the biomass, which is occasionally scraped off for harvesting [8,27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Diversity and Community Structure of Wastewater-Driven Microalgal Biofilms

Blifernez-Klassen,

Hassa,

Reinecke

et al. 2023

Microorganisms

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Dwindling water sources increase the need for efficient wastewater treatment. Solar-driven algal turf scrubber (ATS) system may remediate wastewater by supporting the development and growth of periphytic microbiomes that function and interact in a highly dynamic manner through symbiotic interactions. Using ITS and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we profiled the microbial communities of four microbial biofilms from ATS systems operated with municipal wastewater (mWW), diluted cattle and pig manure (CattleM and PigM), and biogas plant effluent supernatant (BGE) in comparison to the initial inocula and the respective wastewater substrates. The wastewater-driven biofilms differed significantly in their biodiversity and structure, exhibiting an inocula-independent but substrate-dependent establishment of the microbial communities. The prokaryotic communities were comparable among themselves and with other microbiomes of aquatic environments and were dominated by metabolically flexible prokaryotes such as nitrifiers, polyphosphate-accumulating and algicide-producing microorganisms, and anoxygenic photoautotrophs. Striking differences occurred in eukaryotic communities: While the mWW biofilm was characterized by high biodiversity and many filamentous (benthic) microalgae, the agricultural wastewater-fed biofilms consisted of less diverse communities with few benthic taxa mainly inhabited by unicellular chlorophytes and saprophytes/parasites. This study advances our understanding of the microbiome structure and function within the ATS-based wastewater treatment process.

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Synthetic periphyton as a model system to understand species dynamics in complex microbial freshwater communities

Cited by 8 publications

References 93 publications

A domesticated photoautotrophic microbial community as a biofilm model system for analyzing the influence of plastic surfaces on invertebrate grazers in limnic environments

A domesticated photoautotrophic microbial community as a biofilm model system for analyzing the influence of plastic surfaces on invertebrate grazers in limnic environments

Differentiating Microplastics from Natural Particles in Aqueous Suspensions Using Flow Cytometry with Machine Learning

Microbial Diversity and Community Structure of Wastewater-Driven Microalgal Biofilms

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