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The Enrichment of Microbial Community for Accumulating Polyhydroxyalkanoates Using Propionate-Rich Waste

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Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are promising alternatives to plastics since they have similar properties to polyolefin but are biodegradable and biocompatible. Recently, the conversion of propionate wastewater to PHAs by undefined mixed microbial cultures becomes attractive. However, how microbial community changes remains unclear during the enrichment step, which is critical for a robust PHA-producing system. In this study, PHA-accumulating cultures were enriched under feast/famine condition using propionate-rich substrates. Our results showed that during the first 2 h of the enrichment, dissolved oxygen of cultures increased remarkably until saturation, and amounts of C, N, and chemical oxygen demand of cultures decreased significantly to a very low level. High-throughput sequencing revealed that bacterial populations affiliated with Alphaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes dominated the cultures enriched. Most of these dominant populations contributed to the conversion of short-chain fatty acids to PHAs. Being fed with the substrate rich in propionate but without nitrogen, the cultures enriched could accumulate nearly 27% PHAs at 72 h with higher content of hydroxyvalerate. Our work reveals the process in which environmental microbes responded to propionate-rich condition and shifted to populations for accumulating PHAs; it also will be helpful to develop an efficient PHA-producing system using propionate-rich waste.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Sichuan Key Technology R&D Program (2014NZ0045), Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest of China (201403019), and Youth Science and Technology Foundation of Sichuan Province (2015JQO047).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture, 4-13 Renmin Rd. South, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Bo Wu, Dan Zheng, Zheng Zhou, Jing-Li Wang, Zheng-Wei Li, Hong-Nan Yang, Han Qin, Min Zhang, Guo-Quan Hu & Ming-Xiong He

  2. Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 12 Zhongguancun St. South, Beijing, 10081, China

    Jing-Li Wang, Zheng-Wei Li & Hong-Nan Yang

  3. Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4 Shizishan Rd, Chengdu, 610066, China

    Xiao-Lan He

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  1. Bo Wu
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Wu, B., Zheng, D., Zhou, Z. et al. The Enrichment of Microbial Community for Accumulating Polyhydroxyalkanoates Using Propionate-Rich Waste. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 182, 755–768 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-016-2359-2

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