Metagenomic analysis of two enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge communities.
Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is one of the best-studied microbially mediated industrial processes because of its ecological and economic relevance. Despite this, it is not well understood at the metabolic level. Here we present a metagenomic analysis of two lab-scale EBPR sludges dominated by the uncultured bacterium, "Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis." The analysis sheds light on several controversies in EBPR metabolic models and provides hypotheses explaining the dominance of A. phosphatis in this habitat, its lifestyle outside EBPR and probable cultivation requirements. Comparison of the same species from different EBPR sludges highlights recent evolutionary dynamics in the A. phosphatis genome that could be linked to mechanisms for environmental adaptation. In spite of an apparent lack of phylogenetic overlap in the flanking communities of the two sludges studied, common functional themes were found, at least one of them complementary to the inferred metabolism of the dominant organism. The present study provides a much needed blueprint for a systems-level understanding of EBPR and illustrates that metagenomics enables detailed, often novel, insights into even well-studied biological systems.
García Martín
Héctor
H
DOE Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, California 94598, USA.
Ivanova
Natalia
N
Kunin
Victor
V
Warnecke
Falk
F
Barry
Kerrie W
KW
McHardy
Alice C
AC
Yeates
Christine
C
He
Shaomei
S
Salamov
Asaf A
AA
Szeto
Ernest
E
Dalin
Eileen
E
Putnam
Nik H
NH
Shapiro
Harris J
HJ
Pangilinan
Jasmyn L
JL
Rigoutsos
Isidore
I
Kyrpides
Nikos C
NC
Blackall
Linda Louise
LL
McMahon
Katherine D
KD
Hugenholtz
Philip
P
D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D020562:Betaproteobacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid
D012722:Sewage; D010758:Phosphorus