Microbial Community Structure and Diversity During the Enrichment of Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation Bacteria

Abstract

To understand the changes in microbial community characteristics during the enrichment of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) bacteria, an ASBR reactor was used to culture the ANAMMOX bacteria. The composition, diversity, and species co-occurrence network of the microbial community were investigated under different cultivation times. The results showed that the ANAMMOX bacteria were enriched by gradually increasing the substrate concentration, with removal efficiencies for NH4+-N, NO2--N, and total nitrogen of 97.6%, 95.4%, and 84.9%, respectively. The high-throughput sequencing found that the dominant phyla (relative abundance>5%) were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Planctomycetes, Armatimonadetes, and Actinobacteria in the whole culture process. Candidatus Brocadia was the main ANAMMOX bacteria in the reactor, with its relative abundance increasing from 1.42% to 24.66%. During the cultivation process, the composition of the dominant microbial community did not change, while the relative abundance showed a significant difference (P<0.05). The alpha diversity of the microbial community significantly increased first and then decreased (P<0.05), and the beta diversity of the microbial community was significantly spatially differentiated (R=0.5672, P<0.01) during the culture process. Species network densities were 0.188, 0.068, 0.059, 0.18, and 0.0735 at different times during the culture process. Although the enrichment culture process resulted in weaker correlations between microorganisms, the related group of microorganisms in the phylum Aspergillus became the main node in the network. The enrichment process weakened the correlation between microorganisms; however, the microbial taxa related to the phylum Planctomycetes became the key node in the network.