Aalborg East Full-Scale EBPR Activated Sludge Community

Community ID CommunityMech:000139

Ecological State ENGINEERED

Environment full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal activated sludge
ENVO:00002046

An engineered full-scale activated sludge microbial community from the Aalborg East wastewater treatment plant in Denmark carrying out enhanced biological phosphorus removal. The community was profiled with an 18.2 Gb Illumina metagenome and qFISH, revealing phosphate-removal organisms including Candidatus Accumulibacter and Tetrasphaera-related Actinobacteria, flanking substrate-providing bacteria, and metagenomic enrichment for phosphate metabolism and biofilm/floc formation functions.

Taxonomy

Taxon	Ontology ID	Functional Roles	Abundance
Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis and related PAOs	NCBITaxon:28216	PRIMARY_DEGRADER CROSS_FEEDER	DOMINANT
PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL) "Accumulibacter accounted for only 4.8% of all bacteria by qFISH, but the depth of sequencing enabled detailed insight into their microdiversity in the full-scale plant." PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO) "The organisms facilitating EBPR are called polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) and the most important PAOs have been identified using culture independent methods as Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis"
Tetrasphaera-related actinobacterial PAOs	NCBITaxon:201174	PRIMARY_DEGRADER	DOMINANT
PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO) "The organisms facilitating EBPR are called polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) and the most important PAOs have been identified using culture independent methods as Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis and the actinobacterial genus Tetrasphaera." PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL) "It is evident that actinobacteria (3% vs 30%), chloroflexi (3% vs 17%) and TM7 (0.3% vs 5%) were underrepresented in the metagenome compared with the qFISH data"
Bacteroidetes flanking community members	NCBITaxon:976	PRIMARY_DEGRADER	N/A
PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL) "The high number of ORFs assigned to the phylum bacteroidetes is likely to be related to bacteria identified by the qFISH-probes targeting the family of saprospiraceae"
EBPR flanking bacteria	NCBITaxon:2	CROSS_FEEDER SECONDARY_FERMENTER	N/A
PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO) "bacteria providing substrate to the PAOs, such as fermenters, and bacteria involved in hydrolysis of macromolecules"

Ecological Interactions

Taxon

Cross-feeding

Mutualism

Syntrophy

Competition

Commensalism

Niche partitioning

Colonization facilitation

Strain competition

Predation

PAO Phosphate Storage Under EBPR Selection

NICHE_PARTITIONING

Source Taxon: Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis and related PAOs

Metabolites: phosphate (CHEBI:18367)

Biological Processes:

phosphate-containing compound metabolic process (GO:0006796)

Evidence

PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)

"The genetic potential for community function showed enrichment of genes involved in phosphate metabolism and biofilm formation, reflecting the selective pressure of the EBPR process."

Flanking-Community Substrate Provision To PAOs

CROSS_FEEDING

Source Taxon: EBPR flanking bacteria

Target Taxon: Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis and related PAOs

Metabolites: acetate (CHEBI:30089)

Biological Processes:

oxidation-reduction process (GO:0055114)

Evidence

PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)

"bacteria providing substrate to the PAOs, such as fermenters, and bacteria involved in hydrolysis of macromolecules"

Sludge Floc and Biofilm Formation

COLONIZATION_FACILITATION

Source Taxon: EBPR flanking bacteria

Biological Processes:

biofilm formation (GO:0042710)

Evidence

PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)

"A relatively high number of proteins was assigned to cell wall and capsule formation."
PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)

"strong selective pressure on activated sludge bacteria for effective floc/biofilm formation that leads to the good settling properties that are required to retain the biomass in the plant."

Associated Datasets

Dataset	Type	Repository	Accession
Aalborg East EBPR metagenome contigs Nonredundant contigs from the Aalborg East full-scale EBPR activated sludge metagenome.	METAGENOME	OTHER	MG-RAST:4463936.3

Environmental Factors

Factor	Value	Unit
Full-scale Aalborg East WWTP operating context	domestic wastewater; stable EBPR; greater than 95% incoming phosphorus removed	N/A
PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO) "The plant treats mainly domestic wastewater and serves 100 000 person equivalents with an average load of 45 000 person equivalents." PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO) "The plant had stable EBPR performance for several years prior to the time of sampling removing >95% of the incoming P"
Anaerobic-anoxic-oxic process cycling	anaerobic tank plus alternating denitrifying anoxic and nitrifying oxic conditions	N/A
PMID:22170425 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO) "The plant has a biodenipho configuration, which includes an anaerobic tank and a tank with alternating denitrifying anoxic and nitrifying oxic conditions."