Abstract
The diversity and assembly of activated sludge microbiomes play a key role in the performances of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), which are the most widely applied biotechnological process systems. In this study, we investigated the microbiomes of municipal WWTPs in Bangkok, Wuhan, and Beijing that respectively represent tropical, subtropical, and temperate climate regions, and also explored how microbiomes assembled in these municipal WWTPs. Our results showed that the microbiomes from these municipal WWTPs were significantly different. The assembly of microbiomes in municipal WWTPs followed deterministic and stochastic processes governed by geographical location, temperature, and nutrients. We found that both taxonomic and phylogenetic α-diversities of tropical Bangkok municipal WWTPs were the highest and were rich in yet-to-be-identified microbial taxa. Nitrospirae and β-Proteobacteria were more abundant in tropical municipal WWTPs, but did not result in better removal efficiencies of ammonium and total nitrogen. Overall, these results suggest that tropical and temperate municipal WWTPs harbored diverse and unique microbial resources, and the municipal WWTP microbiomes were assembled with different processes. Implications of these findings for designing and running tropical municipal WWTPs were discussed.
Key points
• Six WWTPs of tropical Thailand and subtropical and temperate China were investigated.
• Tropical Bangkok WWTPs had more diverse and yet-to-be-identified microbial taxa.
• Microbiome assembly processes were associated with geographical location.
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This work was supported by research grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (KY201701011; 2019YFA0905500; 2019YFC1905001), International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (153211KYSB20160029), and National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand (P-18-52413).
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YS, WM, and SYL performed research and analyzed data. NP collected samples and analyzed physio-chemical parameters. SW conducted the molecular works. YS wrote the paper. CYJ, PK, and DRQ conceived and designed research. SJL, AJW, and VC supervised the project, revised the manuscript, and acquired funding. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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Song, Y., Mhuantong, W., Liu, SY. et al. Tropical and temperate wastewater treatment plants assemble different and diverse microbiomes. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 105, 853–867 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-11082-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-11082-0