title: Dynamics of microbial communities in untreated and autoclaved food waste anaerobic digesters.
abstract: This study describes the microbial community richness and dynamics of two semi-continuously stirred biogas reactors during a time-course study of 120 days. The reactors were fed with untreated and autoclaved (160 °C, 6.2 bar) food waste. The microbial community was analysed using a bacteria- and archaea-targeting 16S rRNA gene-based Terminal-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP) approach. Compared with the archaeal community, the structures and functions of the bacterial community were found to be more complex and diverse. With the principal coordinates analysis it was possible to separate both microbial communities with 75 and 50% difference for bacteria and archaea, respectively, in the two reactors fed with the same waste but with different pretreatment. Despite the use of the same feeding material, anaerobic reactors showed a distinct community profile which could explain the differences in methane yield (2-17%). The community composition was highly dynamic for bacteria and archaea during the entire studied period. This study illustrates that microbial communities are dependent on feeding material and that correlations among specific bacterial and archaeal T-RFs can be established.
authors.affiliation: MTT Agrifood Research, Finland. Electronic address: lucia.blasco@mtt.fi.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Blasco
authors.affiliation: MTT Agrifood Research, Finland.
authors.forename: Minna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kahala
authors.affiliation: MTT Agrifood Research, Finland.
authors.forename: Elina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tampio
authors.affiliation: MTT Agrifood Research, Finland.
authors.forename: Satu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ervasti
authors.affiliation: MTT Agrifood Research, Finland.
authors.forename: Teija
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Paavola
authors.affiliation: MTT Agrifood Research, Finland; Tampere University of Technology, Finland.
authors.forename: Jukka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rintala
authors.affiliation: MTT Agrifood Research, Finland.
authors.forename: Vesa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Joutsjoki
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D056804:Biofuels; D019149:Bioreactors; D005502:Food; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008697:Methane / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D059013:Microbial Consortia / Q000235:genetics*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011312:Pressure; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics*; D014866:Waste Products
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D014866:Waste Products; D008697:Methane
keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Biogas; Microbial communities; T-RFLP