title: A Single-Granule-Level Approach Reveals Ecological Heterogeneity in an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor.
abstract: Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor has served as an effective process to treat industrial wastewater such as purified terephthalic acid (PTA) wastewater. For optimal UASB performance, balanced ecological interactions between syntrophs, methanogens, and fermenters are critical. However, much of the interactions remain unclear because UASB have been studied at a "macro"-level perspective of the reactor ecosystem. In reality, such reactors are composed of a suite of granules, each forming individual micro-ecosystems treating wastewater. Thus, typical approaches may be oversimplifying the complexity of the microbial ecology and granular development. To identify critical microbial interactions at both macro- and micro- level ecosystem ecology, we perform community and network analyses on 300 PTA-degrading granules from a lab-scale UASB reactor and two full-scale reactors. Based on MiSeq-based 16S rRNA gene sequencing of individual granules, different granule-types co-exist in both full-scale reactors regardless of granule size and reactor sampling depth, suggesting that distinct microbial interactions occur in different granules throughout the reactor. In addition, we identify novel networks of syntrophic metabolic interactions in different granules, perhaps caused by distinct thermodynamic conditions. Moreover, unseen methanogenic relationships (e.g. "Candidatus Aminicenantes" and Methanosaeta) are observed in UASB reactors. In total, we discover unexpected microbial interactions in granular micro-ecosystems supporting UASB ecology and treatment through a unique single-granule level approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, North Mathews Ave, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.|Department of Environmental systems Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Kami-tomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan.
authors.forename: Kyohei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, North Mathews Ave, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Masaru K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Nobu
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, North Mathews Ave, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, North Mathews Ave, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.|Bioproduction Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Central, Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Narihiro
authors.affiliation: Petrochemicals Technology, BP America, Naperville, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Benjamin T W
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Bocher
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental systems Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Kami-tomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, North Mathews Ave, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Wen-Tso
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D005285:Fermentation; D059013:Microbial Consortia; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D010795:Phthalic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D010795:Phthalic Acids; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012722:Sewage; C011363:terephthalic acid