Research progress and prospects of complete ammonia oxidizing bacteria in wastewater treatment

Complete ammonia oxidizing bacteria,or comammox bacteria(CAOB),can oxidize ammonium to nitrate on its own.Its discovery revolutionized our understanding of biological nitrification,and its distribution in both natural and artificial systems has enabled a reevaluation of the relative contribution of microorganisms to the nitrogen cycle.Its wide distribution,adaptation to oligotrophic medium,and diverse metabolic pathways,means extensive research on CAOB and its application in water treatment can be promoted.Furthermore,the energy-saving characteristics of high oxygen affinity and low sludge production may also become frontier directions for wastewater treatment.This paper provides an overview of the discovery and environmental distribution of CAOB,as well as the physiological characteristics of the microorganisms,such as nutrient medium,environmental factors,enzymes,and metabolism,focusing on future research and the application of CAOB in wastewater treatment.Further research should be carried out on the physiological characteristics of CAOB,to analyze its ecological niche and impact factors,and explore its application potential in wastewater treatment nitrogen cycle improvement.

Overlooked nitrogen-cycling microorganisms in biological wastewater treatment

Nitrogen-cycling microorganisms play key roles at the intersection of microbiology and wastewater engineering.In addition to the well-studied ammonia oxidizing bacteria,nitrite oxidizing bacteria,heterotrophic denitrifiers,and anammox bacteria,there are some other N-cycling microorganisms that are less abundant but functionally important in wastewater nitrogen removal.These microbes include,but not limited to ammonia oxidizing archaea(AOA),complete ammonia oxidation(comammox)bacteria,dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia(DNRA)bacteria,and nitrate/nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidizing(NO_(x)-DAMO)microorganisms.In the past decade,the development of high-throughput molecular technologies has enabled the detection,quantification,and characterization of these minor populations.The aim of this review is therefore to synthesize the current knowledge on the distribution,ecological niche,and kinetic properties of these“overlooked”N-cycling microbes at wastewater treatment plants.Their potential applications in novel wastewater nitrogen removal processes are also discussed.A comprehensive understanding of these overlooked N-cycling microbes from microbiology,ecology,and engineering perspectives will facilitate the design and operation of more efficient and sustainable biological nitrogen removal processes.

Main environmental drivers of abundance,diversity and community structure of comammox Nitrospira in paddy soils

The recently discovered complete ammonia oxidizers comammox Nitrospira contain clades A and B that can establish an independent one-step nitrification process;however,little is known about their environmental drivers or habitat distributions in agricultural soils.Previous studies on comammox Nitrospira in paddy soils have mainly focused on small-scale samples,and there is a lack of multisite research on comammox Nitrospira in paddy soils.In this study,we conducted a survey of 36 paddy soils to understand the community structure,abundance,and diversity of comammox Nitrospira and the degree to which they are affected by environmental factors at a large scale.Comammox Nitrospira were found to be widely distributed among the paddy soils.The abundance of comammox Nitrospira clade A was mostly lower than that of clade B,whereas its diversity was mostly higher than that of clade B.Correlation analysis showed that multiple factors affected(P<0.05)the abundance of comammox Nitrospira,including soil pH,organic matter,total carbon,and total nitrogen,latitude,mean annual temperature,and mean annual precipitation.Moreover,there was a clear relationship between the comammox Nitrospira community and habitat,indicating that some amplicon sequence variants(ASVs)had a unique dominant position in specific habitats.Phylogenetic analysis showed that the ASVs of comammox Nitrospira clade A clustered with the known sequences in the paddy soils and were significantly different from the known sequences in other habitats,which may be related to the unique paddy field habitat.In contrast,comammox Nitrospira clade B showed no clear habitat dependence.These results support the wide distribution and high abundance of comammox Nitrospira in paddy soils and provide novel insights into nitrogen cycling and nutrient management in agricultural ecosystems.