title: Invasibility of resident biofilms by allochthonous communities in bioreactors.
abstract: Invasion of non-native species can drastically affect the community composition and diversity of engineered and natural ecosystems, biofilms included. In this study, a molecular community fingerprinting method was used to monitor the putative establishment and colonization of allochthonous consortia in resident multi-species biofilms. To do this, biofilms inoculated with tap water or activated sludge were grown for 10 days in bubble column reactors W1 and W2, and S, respectively, before being exposed to non-native microbial consortia. These consortia consisted of fresh activated sludge suspensions for the biofilms inoculated with tap water (reactors W1 and W2) and of transplanted mature tap water biofilm for the activated sludge biofilm (reactor S). The introduction of virgin, unoccupied coupons into W1 and W2 enabled us to additionally investigate the competition for new resources (space) among the resident biofilm and the allochthonous consortia. CE-SSCP revealed that after the invasion event changes were mostly observed in the abundance of the dominant species in the native biofilms rather than their composition. This suggests that the resident communities within a bioreactor immediately outcompete the allochthonous microbes and shape the microbial community assemblage on both new coupons and already colonized surfaces for the short term. However, with time, latent members of the allochthonous community might grow up affecting the diversity and composition of the original biofilms.
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR0050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Narbonne, F-11100, France; Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science (SAFE), University of Foggia, Via Napoli 25, 71122, Foggia, Italy.
authors.forename: Micol
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bellucci
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR0050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Narbonne, F-11100, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bernet
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR0050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Narbonne, F-11100, France.
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harmand
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR0050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Narbonne, F-11100, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Godon
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR0050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Narbonne, F-11100, France. Electronic address: kim.milferstedt@supagro.inra.fr.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Milferstedt
mesh_terms: D018441:Biofilms; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D058865:Introduced Species; D059013:Microbial Consortia; D012722:Sewage
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage
keywords: Allochthonous consortia; Biological invasion; Multi-species biofilm