Published in

American Society for Microbiology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 19(77), p. 6802-6807, 2011

DOI: 10.1128/aem.05539-11

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Simultaneous Nitrite-Dependent Anaerobic Methane and Ammonium Oxidation Processes:

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Nitrite-dependent anaerobic oxidation of methane (n-damo) and ammonium (anammox) are two recently discovered processes in the nitrogen cycle that are catalyzed by n-damo bacteria, including “ Candidatus Methylomirabilis oxyfera,” and anammox bacteria, respectively. The feasibility of coculturing anammox and n-damo bacteria is important for implementation in wastewater treatment systems that contain substantial amounts of both methane and ammonium. Here we tested this possible coexistence experimentally. To obtain such a coculture, ammonium was fed to a stable enrichment culture of n-damo bacteria that still contained some residual anammox bacteria. The ammonium supplied to the reactor was consumed rapidly and could be gradually increased from 1 to 20 mM/day. The enriched coculture was monitored by fluorescence in situ hybridization and 16S rRNA and pmoA gene clone libraries and activity measurements. After 161 days, a coculture with about equal amounts of n-damo and anammox bacteria was established that converted nitrite at a rate of 0.1 kg-N/m 3 /day (17.2 mmol day −1 ). This indicated that the application of such a coculture for nitrogen removal may be feasible in the near future.