title: Community shifts in a well-operating agricultural biogas plant: how process variations are handled by the microbiome.
abstract: This study provides a comprehensive, long-term microbiological study of a continuously operated, mesophilic, agricultural biogas plant fed with whole-crop silages of maize and rye, cattle manure and cattle slurry. The microbial community structure was accessed by high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. For the characterisation of the microbial dynamics, the community profiling method terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) in combination with a cloning-sequencing approach as well as a LC-MS/MS approach for protein identification were applied. Our results revealed that the anaerobic digestion is a highly sensitive process: small variations in the process performance induce fluctuations in the microbial community composition and activity. In this context, it could be proven that certain microbial species were better adapted to changing process condition such as temperature (interspecies competition) and that there is a physiological compensation between different microorganisms so that the reactor efficiency was not adversely affected despite of structural and functional changes within the microbial community.
authors.affiliation: Department Bioengineering, Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim e.V. (ATB), Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469, Potsdam, Germany, susanne.theuerl@googlemail.com.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Theuerl
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kohrs
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Benndorf
authors.forename: Irena
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Maus
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wibberg
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schlüter
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kausmann
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heiermann
authors.forename: Erdmann
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rapp
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Reichl
authors.forename: Alfred
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pühler
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klocke
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D000818:Animals; D056804:Biofuels; D058448:Biota / Q000528:radiation effects*; D002417:Cattle; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D008372:Manure / Q000382:microbiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012434:Secale / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D013696:Temperature; D003313:Zea mays / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D008372:Manure; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S