Anaerobic Indole-Degrading Sludge Consortium

Community ID CommunityMech:000386

Ecological State ENGINEERED

Environment anaerobic indole-degrading sludge enrichment — ontology label: laboratory environment
ENVO:01001405 · HabitatMech ↗

A long-term acclimated anaerobic sludge consortium established to transform the nitrogen heterocycle indole under laboratory conditions. Meng et al. (2026) combined anaerobic degradation assays, metabolite profiling, metatranscriptomics, and genome-resolved metagenomics after 120 days of acclimation; the enrichment stably degraded 100 mg/L indole but did not effectively remove skatole under the same strategy. Abstract-level MAG and transcript evidence implicated Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Desulfobacterota, and Methanobacterium populations in a candidate division of labor linking upstream indole oxidation, anthranilate-like aromatic-CoA processing, and methanogenesis-associated carbon flow.

Taxonomy

Taxon	Ontology ID	Abundance
Bacteroidota-affiliated candidate indole consortium MAGs — ontology label: Bacteroidota	NCBITaxon:976 · TaxonMech · TraitMech	N/A
PMID:42735627 - PARTIAL (COMPUTATIONAL) "MAG-resolved analysis further suggested that these candidate functions may be distributed among populations affiliated with Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Desulfobacterota, and Methanobacterium."
Chloroflexota-affiliated candidate indole consortium MAGs — ontology label: Chloroflexota	NCBITaxon:200795 · TaxonMech · TraitMech	N/A
PMID:42735627 - PARTIAL (COMPUTATIONAL) "MAG-resolved analysis further suggested that these candidate functions may be distributed among populations affiliated with Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Desulfobacterota, and Methanobacterium."
Desulfobacterota-affiliated candidate indole consortium MAGs — ontology label: Thermodesulfobacteriota	NCBITaxon:200940 · TaxonMech · TraitMech	N/A
PMID:42735627 - PARTIAL (COMPUTATIONAL) "MAG-resolved analysis further suggested that these candidate functions may be distributed among populations affiliated with Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Desulfobacterota, and Methanobacterium."
Methanobacterium-affiliated candidate indole consortium MAGs — ontology label: Methanobacterium	NCBITaxon:2160 · TaxonMech · TraitMech	N/A
PMID:42735627 - PARTIAL (COMPUTATIONAL) "MAG-resolved analysis further suggested that these candidate functions may be distributed among populations affiliated with Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Desulfobacterota, and Methanobacterium." PMID:42735627 - PARTIAL (COMPUTATIONAL) "Metatranscriptomic analysis identified 16,660 differentially expressed genes after indole addition, with strong transcriptional responses involving oxidoreductases, hydrolases, cofactor-dependent redox metabolism, aromatic-CoA-related metabolism, and methane metabolism-associated pathways."

Ecological Interactions

The graph shows only explicitly linked interaction participants. Community members without an asserted participant link are omitted; membership alone does not imply an interaction.

Taxon

Syntrophy

Candidate anaerobic indole-to-methanogenesis division of labor

SYNTROPHY

Metabolite profiling and multi-omics inference support a candidate community-level flow from upstream indole oxidation through anthranilate-like aromatic-CoA intermediates toward methanogenesis-associated carbon flow, with functions inferred across Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Desulfobacterota, and Methanobacterium populations.

Participating Taxa: Bacteroidota-affiliated candidate indole consortium MAGs, Chloroflexota-affiliated candidate indole consortium MAGs, Desulfobacterota-affiliated candidate indole consortium MAGs, Methanobacterium-affiliated candidate indole consortium MAGs

Metabolites: indole (CHEBI:16881 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), methane (CHEBI:16183 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech)

Biological Processes:

methanogenesis (GO:0015948 · PathwayMech)

Evidence

PMID:42735627 - PARTIAL (COMPUTATIONAL)

"these findings establish a stable anaerobic indole-degrading consortium and provide a testable functional framework for syntrophic interactions linking upstream indole transformation, aromatic-CoA metabolism, and methanogenesis-associated carbon flow."

Knowledge gaps & discussions (1)

CURATION_TODO OPEN Curate the full text before promoting this abstract-level record to exact MAG names, accessioned omics datasets, anaerobic medium chemistry, or pairwise member-to-member syntrophy edges.

The PubMed abstract confirms a stable 120-day indole-degrading anaerobic sludge consortium and four broad lineage affiliations, but it does not report the inoculum source, medium, gas phase, incubation temperature, MAG IDs, relative abundances, or public sequence accessions needed for more specific curation.

Attaches to: taxonomy, growth_media, cultivation_setup, ecological_interactions

1 evidence item(s)

abstract SUPPORT PMID:42735627

MAG-resolved analysis further suggested that these candidate functions may be distributed among populations affiliated with Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Desulfobacterota, and Methanobacterium.

Shows that only lineage-level MAG affiliations are visible from the cached abstract.

Environmental Factors

Factor	Value	Unit
Indole degradation after acclimation	100 mg/L indole degraded after 120 days of acclimation	N/A
PMID:42735627 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO) "After 120 days of acclimation, the consortium stably degraded 100 mg/L indole"
Skatole recalcitrance under indole acclimation	Skatole was not effectively removed	N/A
PMID:42735627 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO) "whereas skatole was not effectively removed under the same strategy, indicating substrate-specific adaptation of the microbial community."

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