title: Management of Microbial Communities through Transient Disturbances Enhances the Functional Resilience of Nitrifying Gas-Biofilters to Future Disturbances.
abstract: Microbial communities have a key role for the performance of engineered ecosystems such as waste gas biofilters. Maintaining constant performance despite fluctuating environmental conditions is of prime interest, but it is highly challenging because the mechanisms that drive the response of microbial communities to disturbances still have to be disentangled. Here we demonstrate that the bioprocess performance and stability can be improved and reinforced in the face of disturbances, through a rationally predefined strategy of microbial resource management (MRM). This strategy was experimentally validated in replicated pilot-scale nitrifying gas-biofilters, for the two steps of nitrification. The associated biological mechanisms were unraveled through analysis of functions, abundances and community compositions for the major actors of nitrification in these biofilters, that is, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and Nitrobacter-like nitrite-oxidizers (NOB). Our MRM strategy, based on the application of successive, transient perturbations of increasing intensity, enabled to steer the nitrifier community in a favorable way through the selection of more resistant AOB and NOB sharing functional gene sequences close to those of, respectively, Nitrosomonas eutropha and Nitrobacter hamburgensis that are well adapted to high N load. The induced community shifts resulted in significant enhancement of nitrification resilience capacity following the intense perturbation.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Génie de l'Environnement Industriel, Ecole des Mines d'Alès , Rue Jules Renard, 30100 Alès, France.|Veolia Environnement Recherche et Innovation, Chemin de la Digue, BP76, 78600, Maisons Laffitte, France.|Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Escuela de Ingeniería Bioquímica, Avenida Brasil 2185, Valparaíso, Chile.
authors.forename: Léa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cabrol
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Microbienne, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, INRA, UMR CNRS 5557, USC INRA 1364, Bâtiment Gregor Mendel, 16, rue Raphael Dubois, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Poly
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Génie de l'Environnement Industriel, Ecole des Mines d'Alès , Rue Jules Renard, 30100 Alès, France.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Malhautier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Microbienne, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, INRA, UMR CNRS 5557, USC INRA 1364, Bâtiment Gregor Mendel, 16, rue Raphael Dubois, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pommier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Microbienne, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, INRA, UMR CNRS 5557, USC INRA 1364, Bâtiment Gregor Mendel, 16, rue Raphael Dubois, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lerondelle
authors.affiliation: LabMET, Faculty Bio-Science Engineering, Ghent University , Coupure L 653, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Willy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Verstraete
authors.affiliation: Veolia Environnement Recherche et Innovation, Chemin de la Digue, BP76, 78600, Maisons Laffitte, France.
authors.forename: Anne-Sophie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lepeuple
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Génie de l'Environnement Industriel, Ecole des Mines d'Alès , Rue Jules Renard, 30100 Alès, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Fanlo
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Microbienne, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, INRA, UMR CNRS 5557, USC INRA 1364, Bâtiment Gregor Mendel, 16, rue Raphael Dubois, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Le Roux
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000378:metabolism; D017753:Ecosystem; D059013:Microbial Consortia; D058465:Nitrification; D009573:Nitrites / Q000378:metabolism*; D009576:Nitrobacter / Q000378:metabolism*; D009606:Nitrosomonas / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D009573:Nitrites; D000641:Ammonia