Yang, Min

A novel obligately anaerobic, thermophilic and formate-utilizing bacterium K32T was isolated from Shengli oilfield of China. Cells were straight rods (0.4–0.8 µm × 2.5–8.0 µm), Gram-stain-positive, non-spore-forming and slightly motile. Optimum growth occurred with pH of 7 and 0.5 g l–1 NaCl under temperature of 55–60 °C. Nitrate could be reduced into nitrite, syntrophic formate oxidation to methane and carbon dioxide occurred when co-culturing strain K32T and Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus ΔH. The main cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 (24.0 %), anteiso-C15 : 0 (21.7 %), C16 : 0 (12.7 %) and C14 : 0 (10.8 %), and the main polar lipid was phosphatidylglycerol. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 46.3 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of K32T shared ≤90.4 % of sequence similarity to closest type strains of Desulfitibacter alkalitolerans , Calderihabitans maritimus and members of the genus Moorella . Based on the phenotypic, biochemical and genotypic characterization, Zhaonella formicivorans gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed with K32T (=CCAM 584T =DSM 107278T=CGMCC1.5297T) as the type strain, which is the first representative of Zhaonellaceae fam. nov. In addition, the order Thermoanaerobacterales and family Peptococcaceae were reclassified, and three novel families in the novel order of Moorellales ord. nov. were also proposed.

We investigated the bacterial community compositions and phosphorus removal performance under sludge bulking and non-bulking conditions in two biological wastewater treatment systems (conventional A2/O (anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic) and inverted A2/O (anoxic/anaerobic/aerobic) processes) receiving the same raw wastewater. Sludge bulking resulted in significant shift in bacterial compositions from Proteobacteria dominance to Actinobacteria dominance, characterized by the significant presence of filamentous ‘Candidatus Microthrix parvicella’. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis revealed that the relative abundance of ‘Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis’, a key polyphosphate-accumulating organism responsible for phosphorus removal, with respect to 16s rRNA genes of total bacteria was 0.8 and 0.7%, respectively, for the conventional and inverted A2/O systems when sludge bulking occurred, which increased to 8.2 and 12.3% during the non-bulking period. However, the total phosphorus removal performance during the bulking period (2-week average: 97 ± 1 and 96 ± 1%, respectively) was not adversely affected comparable to that during the non-bulking period (2-week average: 96 ± 1 and 96 ± 1%, respectively). Neisser staining revealed the presence of large polyphosphate granules in ‘Candidatus Microthrix parvicella’, suggesting that this microbial group might have been responsible for phosphorus removal during the sludge bulking period when ‘Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis’ was excluded from the systems.