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Prokaryotic viruses impact functional microorganisms in nutrient removal and carbon cycle in wastewater treatment plants

Nov 29, 2021

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Professor Tong Zhang of the Department of Civil Engineering, and his team had worked on a research topic “Prokaryotic viruses impact functional microorganisms in nutrient removal and carbon cycle in wastewater treatment plants”. The research was published by Nature Communications on September 13, 2021.

Details of the publication:

Prokaryotic viruses impact functional microorganisms in nutrient removal and carbon cycle in wastewater treatment plants

Yiqiang Chen, Yulin Wang, David Paez-Espino, Martin F. Polz & Tong Zhang

Article in Nature Communications 12, Article number: 5398 (2021)

Abstract:

As one of the largest biotechnological applications, activated sludge (AS) systems in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) harbor enormous viruses, with 10-1,000-fold higher concentrations than in natural environments. However, the compositional variation and host-connections of AS viruses remain poorly explored. Here, we report a catalogue of ~50,000 prokaryotic viruses from six WWTPs, increasing the number of described viral species of AS by 23-fold, and showing the very high viral diversity which is largely unknown (98.4-99.6% of total viral contigs). Most viral genera are represented in more than one AS system with 53 identified across all. Viral infection widely spans 8 archaeal and 58 bacterial phyla, linking viruses with aerobic/anaerobic heterotrophs, and other functional microorganisms controlling nitrogen/phosphorous removal. Notably, Mycobacterium, notorious for causing AS foaming, is associated with 402 viral genera. Our findings expand the current AS virus catalogue and provide reference for the phage treatment to control undesired microorganisms in WWTPs.

 

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25678-1