Sj. You et al., Characterization of the microbial diversity in a biotreatment process using non-culture based methods, WATER SCI T, 42(3-4), 2000, pp. 143-148
Molecular techniques were used to compare the microbial community of suspen
ded activated sludge and attached biofilm in a biological nutrient removal
process (TNCU-I) operated under various COD/total P (COD/TP) feed ratios. A
nalysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism of amplified 16S rRNA g
enes indicated that the microbial population structures were more closely r
elated among those sludge samples taken from aerobic sludge than that taken
from biofilm attached on the RBC. The use of different COD/TP feed ratios
(300/2.5-300/25) had no significant effect on the change of microbial struc
tures of sludge samples. The 16S rDNA clone library further indicated that
at least eight and six different microbial populations were present in acti
vated sludge and RBC biofilm, respectively. The phylogenetic analysis revea
led that six of those eight major clones obtained from the suspended activa
ted sludge were from the beta-subclass of the class Proteobacteria. In cont
rast, only one clone obtained from biofilm belonged to the beta-subclass of
the Proteobacteria. This difference in the microbial population structure
was possibly attributed to the growth state (suspended or attached) or carb
on source (autographs or heterotrophs) of the sludge samples rather than th
e effect of the COD/TP ratio used.