Electrostimulation triggers an increase in cross-niche microbial associations toward enhancing organic nitrogen wastewater treatment

Ke Shi; Bin Liang; Kai Feng; Daliang Ning; Carolyn R Cornell; Yanqing Zhang; Wenbin Xu; Min Zhou; Ye Deng; Jiandong Jiang; Tiejun Liu; Aijie Wang; Jizhong Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117301

Electrostimulation triggers an increase in cross-niche microbial associations toward enhancing organic nitrogen wastewater treatment

J Environ Manage. 2023 Apr 1:331:117301. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117301. Epub 2023 Jan 19.

Authors

Ke Shi¹, Bin Liang², Kai Feng³, Daliang Ning⁴, Carolyn R Cornell⁵, Yanqing Zhang⁶, Wenbin Xu⁷, Min Zhou⁷, Ye Deng³, Jiandong Jiang⁸, Tiejun Liu⁷, Aijie Wang⁹, Jizhong Zhou¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Organic Pollution Prevention and Control, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518055, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Organic Pollution Prevention and Control, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518055, China. Electronic address: liangbin1214@163.com.
³ Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
⁴ Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA.
⁵ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Organic Pollution Prevention and Control, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
⁸ Key Lab of Agricultural Environmental Microbiology, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, 210095, Nanjing, China.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Organic Pollution Prevention and Control, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518055, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
¹⁰ Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA; School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA; School of Computer Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA; Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.

PMID: 36681035
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117301

Abstract

As an efficient wastewater pretreatment biotechnology, electrostimulated hydrolysis acidification (eHA) has been used to accelerate the removal of refractory pollutants, which is closely related to the effects of electrostimulation on microbial interspecies associations. However, the ecological processes underpinning such linkages remain unresolved, especially for the microbial communities derived from different niches, such as the electrode surface and plankton. Herein, the principles of cross-niche microbial associations and community assembly were investigated using molecular ecological network and phylogenetic bin-based null model analysis (iCAMP) based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. The electrostimulated planktonic sludge and electrode biofilm displayed significantly (P < 0.05) 1.67 and 1.53 times higher organic nitrogen pollutant (azo dye Alizarin Yellow R) degradation efficiency than non-electrostimulation group, and the corresponding microbial community composition and structure were significantly (P < 0.05) changed. Electroactive bacteria and functional degraders were enriched in the electrode biofilm and planktonic sludge, respectively. Notably, electrostimulation strengthened the synergistic microbial associations (1.8 times more links) between sludge and biofilm members. Additionally, both electrostimulation and cross-niche microbial associations induced greater importance of deterministic assembly. Overall, this study highlights the specificity of cross-electrode surface microbial associations and ecological processes with electrostimulation and advances our understanding of the manipulation of sludge microbiomes in engineered wastewater treatment systems.

Keywords: Cross-niche microbial associations; Electrostimulated hydrolysis acidification (eHA); Microbial community assembly; Organic nitrogen wastewater treatment.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors
Nitrogen
Phylogeny
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
Sewage*
Water Purification*

Substances

Sewage
Nitrogen
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S