Seasonal and Spatial Changes of Planktonic Bacterial Communities Inhabiting the Natural Thermal Lake Hévíz, Hungary

Lake Hévíz is a unique thermal spa located in Hungary. Owing to the thermal springs nourishing the lake, it has a relatively rapid water turnover. In spring 2011 a comprehensive embankment reconstruction was performed to preserve the water supply of the surrounding wetland habitats. The physical and chemical parameters as well as the planktonic microbial communities were studied with special respect to the effect of the disturbance of the water of Lake Hévíz. According to the abiotic components, both temporal and spatial differences were revealed with the exception of autumn samples. The reconstruction resulted in a short term but dramatic alteration of the total planktonic bacterial and cyanobacterial community structures as revealed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. In addition, greater seasonal than spatial differences of bacterial communities were also observed. Planktonic bacterial community composition of Lake Hévíz included mainly typical freshwater species within phylum Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria and class Alpha-, Beta- and Gamma-proteobacteria. Most of them were aerobic or facultative anaerobic heterotrophic but chemolitotrophic (e.g. Thiobacillus) or photolithotrophic (e.g. Cyanobacteria and Chloroflexi) autotrophic microbes were also identified

Assessing the microbial communities inhabiting drinking water networks and nitrifying enrichments with special respect on nitrifying microorganisms

This study provides a comprehensive microbiological survey of three drinking water networks applying different water treatment processes. Variability of microbial communities was assessed by cultivation-based [nitrifying, denitrifying most probable number (MPN) heterotrophic plate count] and sequence-aided terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. The effect of microbial community composition on nitrifying MPN values was revealed. The non-treated well water samples showed remarkable differences to their corresponding distribution systems regarding low plate count, nitrifying MPN, and the composition of microbial communities, which increased and changed, respectively, in distribution systems. Environmental factors, such as pH, total inorganic nitrogen content (ammonium and nitrite concentration), and chlorine dioxide treatment had effect on microbial community compositions. The revealed heterogeneous nitrifying population achieved remarkable nitrification, which occurred at low ammonium concentration (14–51 μM) and slightly alkaline pH 7.7–7.9 in chlorine dioxide disinfected water networks. No change was observed in nitrification-generated nitrate concentration, although nitrate-reducing (and denitrifying) bacteria were present with low MPN and characterized by sequence-aided T-RFLP. The community structures of water samples partially changed in nitrifying enrichments and had influence on the generated nitrifying, especially nitrite-oxidizing MPN regarding the facilitated growth of nitrate-reducing bacteria and even methanogenic archaea beside ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria

Preparation and characterization of site-specific dechlorinating microbial inocula capable of complete dechlorination enriched in anaerobic microcosms amended with clay mineral

Short-chain halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons (e.g. perchloroethene, trichloroethene) are among the most toxic environmental pollutants. Perchloroethene and trichloroethene can be dechlorinated to non-toxic ethene through reductive dechlorination by Dehalococcoides sp. Bioaugmentation, applying cultures containing organohalide-respiring microorganisms, is a possible technique to remediate sites contaminated with chlorinated ethenes. Application of site specific inocula is an efficient alternative solution. Our aim was to develop site specific dechlorinating microbial inocula by enriching microbial consortia from groundwater contaminated with trichloroethene using microcosm experiments containing clay mineral as solid phase. Our main goal was to develop fast and reliable method to produce large amount (100 L) of bioactive agent with anaerobic fermentation technology. Polyphasic approach has been applied to monitor the effectiveness of dechlorination during the transfer process from bench-scale (500 mL) to industrial-scale (100 L). Gas chromatography measurement and T-RFLP (Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) revealed that the serial subculture of the enrichments shortened the time-course of the complete dechlorination of trichloroethene to ethene and altered the composition of bacterial communities. Complete dechlorination was observed in enrichments with significant abundance of Dehalococcoides sp. cultivated at 8 °C. Consortia incubated in fermenters at 18 °C accelerated the conversion of TCE to ethene by 7–14 days. Members of the enrichments belong to the phyla Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. According to the operational taxonomic units, main differences between the composition of the enrichment incubated at 8 °C and 18 °C occurred with relative abundance of acetogenic and fermentative species. In addition to the temperature, the site-specific origin of the microbial communities and the solid phase applied during the fermentation technique contributed to the development of a unique microbial composition.ISSN:0959-3993ISSN:1573-097

A közösségi anyagcsere vizsgálata anaerob deklorináció során = Investigations on the community metabolism in anaerobe dechlorination

A rövidszénláncú alifás klórozott szénhidrogének gyakori talajvízszennyezők hazánkban. A perklóretén, triklóretén biológiai bontása hatékony folyamat, mégis nagy sebességkülönbségek jellemzők különböző szennyezett területeken. A reduktív deklorinációban a klórozott vegyületek elektronakceptorok, elektrondonor a hidrogén, vagy kis molekulatömegű szerves vegyületek. A folyamat elindulásához a deklorináló baktériumoknak felül kell kerekedniük a kompetítor mikrobákon, amelyek szintén hidrogént és szerves vegyületeket hasznosítanak. Szennyezett területekről származó mikrobaközösségek szerkezetét, tagjainak szerepét laboratóriumi körülmények között polifázikus módszerekkel vizsgáltuk, új molekuláris technikákat vezettünk be a mikrobák közötti anyagcsere-kapcsolatok megértésére. Megállapítottuk, hogy sikeres deklorináló közösségben jellemző a Dehalococcoides ethenogenes dominanciája; a mikrobiális diverzitás csökkenése. A lebontás folyamatát fermentáló szervezetek jelenléte lassítja, akárcsak a kometabolikus partnerek gátlása. Hatékony bontás során biofilm kialakulása jellmező és elengedhetetlen kellő mennyiségű hozzáférhető szerves anyag jelenléte. Négy új módszert (MDA, SNuPE, SEM és FISH) optimáltunk a deklorináló mikroba közösség vizsgálatára. Megállapítottuk, hogy a valós aktivitással jobban korreláló RNS alapú vizsgálatok szükségesek a deklorinációban résztvevő mikrobiális kapcsolatok feltárásához. | Chlorinated short chain aliphatic hydrocarbons are common groundwater pollutants in Hungary. Biological decomposition of perchloroethene and trichloroethene is effective process, though speed of decomposition extremely differ in different sites. At reductive dechlorination chlorinated hydrocarbons serve as electron acceptors, H2 or small organic compounds act as donors. At startup of degradation dechlorinating microbes have to outcompete compeptitor microbes utilising similarly H2 and organic compounds. Microbial communities originating from different polluted sites and the role of their members in the community dechlorinating metabolism were investigated under controlled laboratory microcosm experiments using polyphasic approach, and by introducing new techniques. It could be determined that effective dechlorinating communities are characterised by the dominance of Dehalococcoides ethenogenes, and a simplification of the original diversity. The presence of fermenting microbes retards the speed of degradation; the inhibition of co-metabolic partners acts similarly. Effective degradation is characterised by Dehalococcoides spp. biofilm formation, and presence of adequte available organic compounds is indispensable. Four novel methods (MDA, SNuPE, SEM and FISH) were optimised for the investigation of dechlorinating communities. RNA based investigations better correlate real activities thus their use is indispensable in the investigation of microbial metabolic interactions