| Title | Dominance of Endospore-forming Bacteria on a Rotating Activated Bacillus Contactor Biofilm for Advanced Wastewater Treatment |
|---|---|
| Author | Seong Joo Park1*, Jerng Chang Yoon2, Kwang-Soo Shin1, Eung Ho Kim3, Soobin Yim4, Yeon-Je Cho5, Gi Moon Sung5, Dong-Geun Lee6, Seung Bum Kim7, Dong-Uk Lee8, Sung-Hoon Woo9, and Ben Koopman10 |
| Address | 1Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Daejeon University, Daejeon 300-716, Republic of Korea, 2Servier Korea Ltd., Seoul 137-802, Republic of Korea, 3School of Urban and Civil Engineering, Hong-Ik University, Seoul 121-791, Republic of Korea, 4Daejeon Development Institute, Daejeon 302-789, Republic of Korea, 5DnEco Inc., Seoul 137-904, Republic of Korea, 6Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, College of Medical Life Science, Silla University, Busan 617-736, Republic of Korea, 7Department of Microbiology, School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea, 8Jones Edmunds & Associates Inc., Gainesville, FL 32641, USA, 9Gyeongnam Development Institute, Gyeongnam 641-060, Republic of Korea, 10Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA |
| Bibliography | Journal of Microbiology, 45(2),113-121, 2007, |
| DOI | |
| Key Words | Rotating Activated Bacillus Contactor (RABC), biofilm, microbial community structure, endosporeforming bacteria, advanced wastewater treatment |
| Abstract | The bacterial diversity inherent to the biofilm community structure of a modified rotating biological contactor wastewater treatment process, referred to as the Rotating Activated Bacillus Contactor (RABC) process, was characterized in this study, via both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. On the basis of culture-dependent methods, Bacillus sp. were found to exist in large numbers on the biofilm (6.5% of the heterotrophic bacteria) and the microbial composition of the biofilms was quite simple. Only three phyla were identified-namely, the Proteobacteria, the Actinobacteria (High G+C Gram-positive bacteria), and the Firmicutes (Low G+C Gram-positive bacteria). The culture-independent partial 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed a considerably more diverse microbial composition within the biofilms. A total of eight phyla were recovered in this case, three of which were major groups: the Firmicutes (43.9%), the Proteobacteria (28.6%), and the Bacteroidetes (17.6%). The remaining five phyla were minor groups: the Planctomycetes (4.4%), the Chlorobi (2.2%), the Actinobacteria (1.1%), the Nitrospirae (1.1%), and the Verrucomicrobia (1.1%). The two most abundant genera detected were the endospore-forming bacteria (31.8%), Clostridium and Bacillus, both of which are members of the Firmicutes phylum. This finding indicates that these endospore-forming bacteria successfully colonized and dominated the RABC process biofilms. Many of the colonies or clones recovered from the biofilms evidenced significantly high homology in the 16S rDNA sequences of bacteria stored in databases associated with advanced wastewater treatment capabilities, including nitrification and denitrification, phosphorus accumulation, the removal of volatile odors, and the removal of chlorohydrocarbons or heavy metals. The microbial community structures observed in the biofilms were found to correlate nicely with the enhanced performance of advanced wastewater treatment protocols. |
| Download PDF | 45(2)-04.pdf |