Multi-omics analysis on seasonal variations of the biofilm microbial community in a full-scale pre-denitrification biofilter.

Abstract

The seasonal variations of biofilm communities in a municipal wastewater treatment plant were investigated using multi-omics techniques. The abundance of the main phyla of microorganisms varied with summer (July 2019) and winter (January 2019) samples considerably, the Bacteroidetes enriched in winter and Chloroflexi in summer. The results of metaproteomic and metagenomic showed that most of the functional microorganisms belonged to the Betaproteobacteria class, and the enrichment of Flavobacteria class in winter guaranteed the stability of denitrification performance to some extent. Seasonal variations affected the proteomic expression profiling, a total of 2835 differentially expressed proteins identified were significantly enriched in quorum sensing, two-component system, ribosome, benzoate degradation, butanoate metabolism, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle), and cysteine and methionine metabolism pathways. With the expression of nitrogen metabolic proteins decreases in winter, the overall expression of denitrification-related enzymes in winter was much lower than that in summer, the nitrogen metabolism pathway varied significantly. Seasonal variations also induced the alteration of the biofilm metabolite profile; a total of 66 differential metabolites, 8 potential biomarkers, and 8 perturbed metabolic pathways such as TCA cycle were detected. It was found that most of the perturbed pathways are directly related to nitrogen metabolism, and several amino acids and organic acids associated with the TCA cycle were significantly perturbed, the accumulation of TCA cycle intermediates, ornithine, and L-histidine in winter might be conducive to resisting cold temperatures. Furthermore, the correlation between biofilm microbial communities and metabolites was identified by the combined analysis of metabolomic and metaproteomic. The differences of microbial community structure, function, and metabolism between winter and summer in a full-scale pre-denitrification biofilter were revealed for the first time, strengthening our understanding of the microbial ecology of biofilm communities.