A top-down, model aerobic ammonia-oxidizing consortium for wastewater treatment risk and performance assessment. Long-read metagenomics recovered 64 high-quality bacterial MAGs from the starting material, which was dominated by an unclassified Nitrosospira MAG carrying expected ammonia-oxidation capabilities and also contained a lower-abundance Nitrobacter MAG and Legionella MAGs monitored during virulence-gene risk assessment. The consortium was grown in synthetic pond water under an aerobic/anoxic redox gradient to test nitrogen cycling, community composition, and activity by metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and nitrogen chemistry.
Taxonomy
| Taxon | Ontology ID | Functional Roles | Abundance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrosospira MAG — ontology label: Nitrosospira | NCBITaxon:35798 · TaxonMech · TraitMech | N/A | |
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| Nitrobacter MAG — ontology label: Nitrobacter | NCBITaxon:911 · TaxonMech · TraitMech | N/A | |
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| Legionella MAGs — ontology label: Legionella | NCBITaxon:445 · TaxonMech · TraitMech | N/A | |
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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.
Putative Nitrifier Guild Metabolic Handoff
CROSS_FEEDINGPARTIAL - Starting-material Nitrosospira and Nitrobacter MAGs support ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizing guild potential, but do not resolve an active, exclusive donor-recipient flux. Aerobic cultures showed consistent net ammonia removal and nitrate accumulation only after about day 30; anoxic cultures accumulated ammonia. These measured consortium outcomes do not demonstrate nitrification under anoxia or assign the aerobic flux solely to the two starting dominant guilds.
Participating Taxa: Nitrosospira MAG, Nitrobacter MAG
Metabolites: ammonia (CHEBI:16134 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), nitrite (CHEBI:16301 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), nitrate (CHEBI:17632 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech)
Evidence
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PMID:41457319 - PARTIAL (OTHER)"ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) that rely on metabolic handoffs to carry out nitrification "
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PMID:41457319 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)"All cultures accumulated ammonia over 4 weeks, with only aerobic cultures reducing ammonia levels thereafter."
Associated Datasets
| Dataset | Type | Repository | Accession |
|---|---|---|---|
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Nitrifying consortium sequencing reads
BioProject holding the sequencing reads generated for metagenomic and metatranscriptomic profiling of the nitrifying wastewater consortium. |
MULTI_OMICS | NCBI_BIOPROJECT | PRJNA1165788 |
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Nitrifying consortium MAG annotations and analysis outputs
Zenodo archive containing metagenome assemblies, MAG annotations, analysis outputs, supplementary data files, and analysis code for the wastewater nitrifying consortium paper. |
METAGENOMICS | ZENODO | doi:10.5281/zenodo.14861210 |
Knowledge gaps & discussions (1)
KNOWLEDGE_GAP OPEN Which exact-system measurements distinguish the observed outcome from the proposed mechanism?
Retain the observed aerobic ammonia-removal outcome after the lag, anoxic ammonia accumulation, and positive nitrogen-cycling gene potential. An initial aerobic ammonia decrease was followed by rebound before consistent net removal after day 30. Nitrosospira and Nitrobacter declined in aerobic abundance and mapped RNA; Nitrobacter nitrogen-gene RNA was not detected, and other populations could contribute. Gene presence and amoC transcription alone do not establish complete ammonia-monooxygenase activity. Periodic oxygen supply, pH change and alternative nitrogen sources are proposed contributors, not isolated mediators. The bulk ammonia assay does not distinguish NH3 from NH4+. Missing redox-dependent endpoint nodes require separate source-backed causal research; the existing one-node graph remains needs_research.
Attaches to: ecological_interactions#Putative Nitrifier Guild Metabolic Handoff
External Resources
| Name | Repository | Resource ID |
|---|---|---|
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PubMed record
PubMed record for the open-access Applied and Environmental Microbiology paper on the model nitrifying wastewater consortium. |
OTHER | PMID:41457319 |
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Article DOI
DOI for the Applied and Environmental Microbiology article reporting the wastewater nitrifying consortium multi-omics study. |
OTHER | doi:10.1128/aem.01984-25 |
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Growth Media
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