Mao, Yanping

AbstractWe designed novel quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) primers for the polyphosphate kinase 1 (ppk1) gene, targeting eight individual “Candidatus Accumulibacter” (referred to as Accumulibacter) clades. An evaluation of primer sets was conducted regarding the coverage, specificity, and PCR efficiency. (i) All primer sets were designed to cover all available sequences of the target clade. (ii) The phylogenetic analysis of the sequences retrieved from the qPCR products by each primer set demonstrated a high level of specificity. (iii) All calibration curves presented high PCR efficiencies in the range of 85–112% (R2 = 0.962–0.998). In addition, the possible interference of non-target amplicons was individually examined using the qPCR assay for 13 Accumulibacter clades, which were either undetected or showed negligible detection. With the primers designed by other research groups, a highly selective and sensitive qPCR-based method was developed to quantify all Accumulibacter clades, with the exception of Clade IE, in one assay, which enables more comprehensive insights into the community dynamics. The applicability to environmental samples was demonstrated by profiling the Accumulibacter clades in activated sludge samples of nine full-scale wastewater treatment plants.

AbstractHere we employed quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) assays for polyphosphate kinase 1 (ppk1) and 16S rRNA genes to assess relative abundances of dominant clades of Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis (referred to Accumulibacter) in 18 globally distributed full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) from six countries. Accumulibacter were not only detected in the 6 WWTPs performing biological phosphorus removal, but also inhabited in the other 11 WWTPs employing conventional activated sludge (AS) with abundances ranging from 0.02% to 7.0%. Among the AS samples, clades IIC and IID were found to be dominant among the five Accumulibacter clades. The relative abundance of each clade in the Accumulibacter lineage significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with the influent total phosphorus and chemical oxygen demand instead of geographical factors (e.g. latitude), which showed that the local wastewater characteristics and WWTPs configurations could be more significant to determine the proliferation of Accumulibacter clades in full-scale WWTPs rather than the geographical location. Moreover, two novel Accumulibacter clades (IIH and II-I) which had not been previously detected were discovered in two enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) WWTPs. The results deepened our understanding of the Accumulibacter diversity in environmental samples.