RT Journal Article
T1 Monitoring complete ammonia oxidizers bacteria: relevant players for nitrogen removal from wastewater
A1 Duque, Javier
A1 Besga-Oyanarte, L
A1 De Celis Rodríguez, Miguel
A1 Serrano Barrero, Susana Lourdes
A1 Alonso, JL.
A1 Santos de la Sen, Antonio
A1 Arregui García-Rovés, Lucía
AB COMAMMOX (Complete Ammonia Oxidizers) bacteria seem to play an important role in nitrification, being able to directly transform ammonia into nitrates. Due to the relevance of this process in WWTPs, different approaches were used in this work to monitor COMAMMOX bacteria, as well as other microorganisms involved in the biological removal of nitrogen occurring in the bioreactor of a full-scale WWTP. This facility operates with low dissolved oxygen concentrations and prolonged sludge retention times. Fluorescence in situ hybridization confirmed the presence of COMAMMOX bacteria showing their distribution within the activated sludge flocs. Primers targeting the amoA gene, which encodes the A subunit of the ammonia monooxygenase enzyme, were employed as genetic markers in PCR techniques to simultaneously detect and amplify both COMAMMOX clades A and B, as well as specifically clade A, clade B, or various COMAMMOX Nitrospira species (Ca. N. nitrosa, Ca. N. inopinata, and Ca. N. nitrificans). Using digital PCR, a set of these primers enabled the estimation of the proportion of amoA COMAMMOX genes versus other nitrifiers (AOB, AOA and NOB). The data obtained not only confirmed the presence of COMAMMOX bacteria, but also their abundance, comparable to that of NOB and AOB. The 16S rRNA gene-based meta-taxonomy analysis gave complementary data about the microbial diversity and community composition within the samples. The results also highlight the biases of each technology used as monitoring tools, which must be accurate for the effective management of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and for exploiting the potential of COMAMMOX bacteria.
PB Springer Nature
YR 2025
FD 2025-07-04
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/122589
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/122589
LA eng
NO Duque, J., Besga-Oyanarte, L., De Celis, M., Serrano, S., Alonso, J. L., Santos, A., & Arregui, L. (2025). Monitoring complete ammonia oxidizers bacteria: relevant players for nitrogen removal from wastewater. AMB Express, 15, 101. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13568-025-01878-6
NO This research was funded by SANTANDER-UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID Project PR44/21 and MINECO Project CTM2016-76491-P.
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 26 dic 2025