title: Comparison of bacterial communities of conventional and A-stage activated sludge systems.
abstract: The bacterial community structure of 10 different wastewater treatment systems and their influents has been investigated through pyrosequencing, yielding a total of 283486 reads. These bioreactors had different technological configurations: conventional activated sludge (CAS) systems and very highly loaded A-stage systems. A-stage processes are proposed as the first step in an energy producing municipal wastewater treatment process. Pyrosequencing analysis indicated that bacterial community structure of all influents was similar. Also the bacterial community of all CAS bioreactors was similar. Bacterial community structure of A-stage bioreactors showed a more case-specific pattern. A core of genera was consistently found for all influents, all CAS bioreactors and all A-stage bioreactors, respectively, showing that different geographical locations in The Netherlands and Spain did not affect the functional bacterial communities in these technologies. The ecological roles of these bacteria were discussed. Influents and A-stage bioreactors shared several core genera, while none of these were shared with CAS bioreactors communities. This difference is thought to reside in the different operational conditions of the two technologies. This study shows that bacterial community structure of CAS and A-stage bioreactors are mostly driven by solids retention time (SRT) and hydraulic retention time (HRT), as suggested by multivariate redundancy analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva, s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Martinez
authors.affiliation: Institute of Water Research, University of Granada, C/Ramón y Cajal, 4, 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Sanchez
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Technical University of Delft, Julianalaan 67,2628 BC, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lotti
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva, s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria-Jesus
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Garcia-Ruiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva, s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Osorio
authors.affiliation: Institute of Water Research, University of Granada, C/Ramón y Cajal, 4, 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Lopez
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Technical University of Delft, Julianalaan 67,2628 BC, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mark C M
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: van Loosdrecht
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D044822:Biodiversity; D019149:Bioreactors; D004777:Environment; D054892:Metagenome; D064307:Microbiota; D010802:Phylogeny; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage; D062065:Wastewater