Comparison of the bacterial communities in anaerobic, anoxic, and oxic chambers of a pilot A₂O process using pyrosequencing analysis

A₂O process is a sequential wastewater treatment process that uses anaerobic, anoxic, and oxic chambers for nitrogen and phosphorus removal. In this study, the bacterial communities among these chambers were compared, and the diversity of the bacteria involved in nitrogen and phosphorus removal was surveyed. A pilot-scale A₂O process (50 m³ day ^-1) was operated for more than 6 months, and bacterial 16S rRNA gene diversity was analyzed using pyrosequencing. A total of 7,447 bacterial sequence reads were obtained from anaerobic (1,546), anoxic (2,158), and oxic (3,743) chambers. Even though there were differences in the atmospheric condition and functionality, no prominent differences could be found in the bacterial community of the three chambers of the pilot A₂O process. All sequence reads, which were taxonomically analyzed using the Eztaxon-e database, were assigned into 638 approved or tentative genera. Among them, about 72.2 % of the taxa were contained in the phyla Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Phosphate-accumulating bacteria, Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis, and two other Accumulibacter were found to constitute 3.1 % of the identified genera. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, Nitrosomonas oligotropha, and four other phylotypes in the same family, Nitrosomonadaceae, constituted 0.2 and 0.9 %, respectively. Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, Nitrospira defluvii, and other three phylotypes in the same family, Nitrospiraceae, constituted 2.5 and 0.1 %, respectively. In addition, Dokdonella and a phylotype of the phylum Chloroflexi, function in nitrogen and/or phosphate removal of which have not been reported in the A ₂O process, constituted the first and third composition among genera at 4.3 and 3.8 %, respectively.