Metagenomic Insights into Salinity Build-up in Microbial Communities and Metabolism of Hydrolytic Bioreactor Treating High-color PDWW

Abstract

In this study, to solve the problem of salinity enrichment in industrial wastewater recycling, a hydrolytic bioreactor was continuously operated to treat high-color printing and dyeing wastewater (PDWW) with salinity build-up. Nearly complete color removal was achieved even with salinity build-ups from 0.5 to 4 g·L-1 in the influent. Pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes showed that the salinity build-up results in the decrease of microbial species from 882 to 631; however, the biodiversity of the bacterial community remains stable. Metagenomic analysis indicated that salinity build-up caused no obvious effect on the overall function of the bacterial community, but altered the abundance of specific decoloring genes. Proteobacteria dominated in the bioreactor, and Methanothrix and Geobacter were the dominant genera under low salinity conditions. Proteobacteria increased in abundance with salinity build-up. Desulfovibrio and Desulfococcus were the two predominant genera in the bioreactor fed with sodium sulphate salinity build-up, demonstrating opposite responses to the sodium stress. PICRUSt functional analysis showed that the relative abundance of the decolorizing enzymes SOD1 and SOD2 decreased significantly, but the relative abundance of CAT and TYR increased, ensuring the stability of the decolorizing function of the hydrolysis biological system. From the perspective of the functional genes of hydrolysis decolorization, this study explored the effect of salinity build-up on the microbial community and function of hydrolysis, providing a theoretical basis for the study of decolorization and organic matter removal mechanism of PDWW under the condition of salinity build-up.