title: A rapid methodology using fatty acid methyl esters to profile bacterial community structures in microbial fuel cells.
abstract: A new methodology is presented here as an effective, preliminary technique for the identification of indigenous aerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacterial communities found within microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The dual-phased method, named Rapid Agitation Static Incubation-Microbial Identification, or RASI-MIDI, is comprised of rapidly agitating the sample within a SLYM-BART tester followed by stationary incubation which produces a biomass that is subjected to extraction of methyl ester fatty acids. These distinctive fatty acid profiles represent a bacterial community fingerprint unique to the MFC, and are stored in a library for analysis. A total of 84 samples were analyzed for bacterial community structures from seven different groups of MFCs, with each MFC group comprised of a different bacterial community. Results showed that comparisons of replicate MFCs comprising the same bacterial communities generated high similarity index (SI) numbers (SI values ranging from 0.77 to 0.97), indicating highly correlated fatty acid profiles. In contrast, comparisons of MFCs having known dissimilar community structures did not consistently generate SI values in the analysis considered to be a significant match. It was found that this protocol described herein uniquely and accurately produced MFC fatty acid profiles contained in bacterial communities and thus provides a potential method for routinely studying MFC bacterial community fingerprints.
authors.affiliation: University of Regina, Faculty of Engineering, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S0A2. kristina_nelson78@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Kristina Y
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Behrooz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Razban
authors.forename: Dena W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: McMartin
authors.forename: D Roy
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Cullimore
authors.forename: Takaya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: Patrick D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Kiely
mesh_terms: D001420:Bacteria, Aerobic / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids