In-Depth Characterization of Wastewater Bacterial Community in Response to Algal Growth Using Pyrosequencing

Microalgae have been regarded as a natural resource for sustainable materials and fuels, as well as for removal of nutrients and micropollutants from wastewater, and their interaction with bacteria in wastewater is a critical factor to consider because of the microbial diversity and complexity in a variety of wastewater conditions. Despite their importance, very little is known about the ecological interactions between algae and bacteria in a wastewater environment. In this study, we characterized the wastewater bacterial community in response to the growth of a Selenastrum gracile UTEX 325 population in a real municipal wastewater environment. The Roche 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing technique was used for in-depth analysis of amplicons of 16S rRNA genes from different conditions in each reactor, with and without the algal population. The algal growth reduced the bacterial diversity and affected the bacterial community structure in the wastewater. The following in-depth analysis of the deep-sequenced amplicons showed that the algal growth selectively stimulated Sphingobacteria class members, especially the Sediminibacterium genus population, in the municipal wastewater environment.