In this study, voltage was used as a disturbance factor to investigate the relationship between microbial community and methane (CH₄) production flux in a microbial electrolytic cell coupled anaerobic digestion (MEC-AD). Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) was used to explore the relationship between the CH₄ metabolic flux produced and the microbes. The results showed that both methane production flux and hydrogen production flux changed significantly upon voltage disturbance, while the voltage disturbance had little effect on acetic acid production flux. The maximum CH₄ production flux under 0.6 V disturbance was 0.522±0.051, which increased by 77% and 32%, respectively, compared with that of the control group under 1.0 V (0.295±0.013) and under 1.4 V (0.395±0.029). In addition, an average of 15.7%±2.9% of H₂ (flux) was used to reduce CO₂ to produce CH₄ and acetic acid, and an average of 27.7%±6.9% of acetic acid (flux) was converted to CH₄. Moreover, the abundance of Lachnospiraceae significantly affected the flux of acetic acid. The flux of CH₄ production is positively correlated with the abundances of Petrimonas, Syntrophomonas, Blvii28, and Acinetobacter, and negatively correlated with the abundances of Tuzzerella and Sphaerochaeta. The species that affected the flux of H₂ and CH₄ were similar, mostly belonging to Bacteroides, Clostridium, Pseudomonas and Firmicutes. Furthermore, the interspecies interaction is also an important factor affecting the MEC-AD methanogenesis flux.
Acetates ; Anaerobiosis ; Bioreactors ; Electrolysis ; Methane

The genus Dehalogenimonas (Dhgm) is a recently discovered taxonomic group within the class Dehalococcoidia of the phylum Chloroflexi. To date, Dhgm consists of three formally described species including Dehalogenimonas lykanthroporepellens, Dehalogenimonas alkenigignens and Dehalogenimonas formicexedens. All isolates of these three Dhgm species are obligate organohalide-respiring bacteria. They use hydrogen and formate as electron donors and chlorinated ethanes (e.g., 1,2,3-trichloropropane, 1,2-dichloropropane, 1,2-dichloroethane) as electron acceptors in energy-conserving reductive dechlorination reaction. Chlorinated ethanes are common groundwater contaminants in China. The unique metabolic capacities of Dhgm strains implicate it may play important roles in site remediation. The recently reported Dhgm sp. strain WBC-2 and 'Candidatus Dehalogenimonas etheniformans' strain GP are capable of dechlorinating certain chlorinated ethenes. More importantly, strain GP can completely detoxify the carcinogenic vinyl chloride (VC) to ethene. These findings expand the diversity of microorganisms involved in the respiratory VC reductive dechlorination and improve the understanding of Dhgm's ecological functions. Here, we summarize the advances in physiological and biochemical characteristics, ecological functions and genomic features of Dhgm, with the aim to develop effective and sustainable strategies to facilitate the bioremediation of chlorinated compounds contaminated sites.
Anaerobiosis ; Biodegradation, Environmental ; Chloroflexi ; Water Pollutants, Chemical

The clinical bacteriology laboratory has to be prepared to isolate and identify anaerobes as the implication of anaerobes in clinical infections is increasing. Although many types of thioglycollate media have been widely used for the enrichment growth of anerobes, different types are known to have different growth supporting ability. GAM is a recently developed medium, which is said to support a good growth of anaerobes. This study was made to compare GAM and the commonly used thioglycollate medium. It was found that BTM was superior to FTM, but GAM was showing the heaviest growth after a short incubation time. Hemoglobin powder added to FTM or BTM greatly improved growth of Bacteroides without impairing the clarity of the media. Supplementation of FTM with 1/4 strength each of BHI and TSB, and 1000 mg of hemoglobin per liter of medium improved growth of anaerobes. Among all of the tested media, GAM gave the best results for the cultivation of anaerobes including Bacteroides and Fusobacterium.
Anaerobiosis ; Bacteria/growth & development* ; Comparative Study ; Culture Media* ; Hemoglobins ; Thioglycolates*

OBJECTIVETo investigate the biodegradation of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) using methanol as electron donor by acclimated anaerobic sludge.

METHODSHP-6890 gas chromatograph (GC), together with HP-7694 autosampler, was used to analyze the concentration of PCE and intermediates.

RESULTSPCE could be decholrinated reductively to DCE via TCE, and probably further to VC and ethylene. The degradation of PCE and TCE conformed to first-order reaction kinetics. The reaction rate constants were 0.8991 d(-1) and 0.068 d(-1), respectively, and the corresponding half-life were 0.77 d and 10.19 d, respectively. TCE production rate constant was 0.1333 d(-1), showing that PCE was degraded more rapidly than TCE.

CONCLUSIONMethanol is an electron donor suitable for PCE degradation and the cometabolic electron donors are not limiting factors for PCE degradation.

OBJECTIVEThis study was conducted to optimize the operational parameters of anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A²/O) processes to reduce the toxicity of municipal wastewater and evaluate its ability to reduce toxicity.

METHODSA luminescent bacterium toxicity bioassay was employed to assess the toxicity of influent and effluent of each reactor in the A²/O system.

RESULTSThe optimum operational parameters for toxicity reduction were as follows: anaerobic hydraulic retention time (HRT) = 2.8 h, anoxic HRT = 2.8 h, aerobic HRT = 6.9 h, sludge retention time (SRT) = 15 days and internal recycle ratio (IRR) = 100%. An important toxicity reduction (%) was observed in the optimized A²/O process, even when the toluene concentration of the influent was 120.7 mg·L⁻¹.

CONCLUSIONSThe toxicity of municipal wastewater was reduced significantly during the A²/O process. A²/O process can be used for toxicity reduction of municipal wastewater under toxic-shock loading.

In order to explore the microbial communities and functions of activated sludge in an Anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A²/O) process under the start-up of Actinic reaction enzyme system (ARES) system and to understand the impact of the ARES system in domestic sewage treatment process, the activated sludge microbial community structure in the A²/O process system before and after ARES system start-up was analyzed by Illumina-HiSeq 2000 high-throughput sequencing platform. By combining with the main parameters related to the effect of sewage treatment, we analyzed the environmental functions of the microbial communities. The microbial community structure of activated sludge was significantly different before and after the ARES system start-up. There were 9 main bacterial phyla in the system (average relative abundance ≥1%), accounting for 96%-98% of the total bacteria sequenced. After the ARES system was started, the relative abundance of Betaproteobacteria and Chlorobi increased by 3.45%-3.85% and 0.45%-2.61%, respectively. In the anaerobic unit, the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes increased by 12.97%, while the Actinobacteria and Firmicutes decreased by 9.60% and 1.45%, respectively. At the genus level of bacteria, the relative abundance of Denitratisoma increased by 0.80%-3.27%, while the Haliangium and Arcobacter decreased by 3.36%-4.52% and 1.48%-3.45%, respectively. The relative abundance of bacteria was significantly different before and after the ARES system start-up. There were 7 abundant fungi phyla (average relative abundance ≥1%) in the system. After the ARES system was started, the relative abundance of Rozellomycota decreased by 42.71%-46.77%. In the anaerobic unit, the relative abundance of Ascomycota decreased by 13.39%, while the relative abundance of Glomeromycota increased by 13.86%. At the genus level of fungi. The relative abundance of Entomophthoraceae sp. and Glomcromycota sp. increased by 31.35%-36.50% and 6.27%-13.84%, respectively, while the Rozellomycota sp. and Xylochrysis lucida decreased by 42.71%-46.77% and 3.67%-5.54%, respectively. Our results showed that the application of ARES system caused the response of the microbial community to environmental changes, especially for the fungi communities, in the meanwhile, improved the effluent quality, especially the removal rate of total nitrogen.
Anaerobiosis ; Ascomycota ; Bioreactors ; Microbiota ; Nitrogen ; Sewage ; Waste Disposal, Fluid

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) synthesis by activated sludge using volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in fermentation liquid of excess sludge as carbon source is a hotspot in the field of environmental biotechnology. However, there is no unified conclusion on the effects of non-VFAs, mainly dissolved organic matter (DOM), on PHA production. Thus, this critical review mainly introduces the main characteristics and common analysis methods of DOM in anaerobic fermentation liquid. The effects of DOM on PHA production are analyzed from the aspects of microbiology, metabolic regulation and sludge properties. The results of different studies showed that high concentration of DOM is bad for PHA production, but an appropriate amount of DOM is conducive to the stability of sludge properties, reducing the final PHA purification cost. Finally, suitable strategies were proposed to regulate the PHA synthesis by activated sludge with DOM for PHA production by anaerobic fermentation liquid.
Anaerobiosis ; Bioreactors ; Fatty Acids, Volatile ; Fermentation ; Polyhydroxyalkanoates ; Sewage

The facultative anaerobic and strict anaerobic microorganisms enriched and acclimated during the anaerobic digestion process are crucial for the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion system. Most of the problems encountered during running anaerobic digestion processes could be effectively improved via stimulation of microbial metabolic activity. Benefited from the rapid development of microbiome techniques, deeper insights into the microbial diversity in anaerobic digestion systems, e.g. the microbe-microbe interactions and microbe-environment interactions, have been gained. A complex and intricate metabolic network exists in the anaerobic digestion system of solid organic wastes. However, little is known about these interactions and the underlying mechanisms. This review briefly summarized the representative interactions between microbial communities during anaerobic digestion process discovered to date. In addition, typical issues encountered during the anaerobic digestion of solid organic wastes and how microbes can tackle and alleviate these issues were discussed. Finally, future priorities on microbiome research were proposed based on present contribution of microbiome analysis in anaerobic digestion system.
Anaerobiosis ; Bioreactors ; Methane ; Microbial Interactions ; Microbiota ; Solid Waste

Anaerobic digestion is another important anaerobic catabolism pathway besides lactic acid and ethanol fermentation, which is of great significance for recycling resources, maintaining the ecological balance, optimizing the energy structure, alleviating the energy crisis, and promoting the implementation of the "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality" strategy. However, such an important metabolic process has not been involved in the current textbooks and teaching of biochemistry courses, making the teaching system incomplete. The anaerobic digestion process involves many reactions and complex metabolic pathways. In order to improve the students' understanding to this process, we created a full chart of the whole anaerobic digestion process based on systemic literature review and integrated it into the classroom teaching through the BOPPPS teaching mode. It was found that the classroom teaching assisted by this metabolic chart could help students establish the structural framework of the anaerobic digestion process and enrich the knowledge system of metabolism, achieving a good teaching effect. This paper introduces the content of the metabolic pathways of anaerobic digestion and the design of the teaching process, which would facilitate the teaching reforms and perfection of textbooks for related courses, such as Biochemistry, Environmental Engineering Microbiology and New Energy Engineering.
Humans ; Anaerobiosis ; Biochemistry/education* ; Students ; Metabolic Networks and Pathways ; Fermentation

Importance of anaerobic bacteria is often neglected in clinical bacteriology due to difficulties of isolation and identification. Anaerobic infection became more important as more patients with defective defence against microbial invasion are treated at hospitals. This is a report of studies of anaerobe isolation from clinical specimens and antibiotic susceptibilities. Clinical cases with anaerobe isolation are also presented to stress importance of anaerobes as etiologic agents. 128 anaerobe strains from 111 patients, were isolated in 1972 and 1973. Among these, 82% were non-sporeforming anaerobes. Isolation of anaerobes was frequent from specimens of pleural, and abdominal fluid, and liver. In some patients, anaerobes were isolated in pure culture. Gram-positive organisms were susceptible to many antibiotics. Bacteroides fragilis was susceptible to chloramphenicol and tetracyline, but resistant to many other antibiotics. Overall antibiotic susceptibility was similar to the results by other workers in other countries.
Anaerobiosis ; Bacteria/isolation & purification ; Bacterial Infections/diagnosis* ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Human ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests