Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2010 Feb;71(2):247-59. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2009.00802.x. Epub 2009 Oct 23.
Contamination of aquifers by organic pollutants threatens groundwater supplies and the environment. In situ biodegradation of organic pollutants by microbial communities is important for the remediation of contaminated sites, but our understanding of the relationship between microbial development and pollutant biodegradation is poor. A particular challenge is understanding the in situ status of microorganisms attached to solid surfaces, but not accessible via conventional sampling of groundwater. We have developed novel flow-through microcosms and examined dynamic changes in microbial community structure and function in a phenol-degrading system. Inoculation of these microcosms with a complex microbial community from a plume in a phenol-contaminated aquifer led to the initial establishment of a population dominated by a few species, most attached to the solid substratum. Initially, phenol biodegradation was incomplete, but as the microbial community structure became more complex, phenol biodegradation was more extensive and complete. These results were replicated between independent microcosms, indicating a deterministic succession of species. This work demonstrates the importance of examining community dynamics when assessing the potential for microbial biodegradation of organic pollutants. It provides a novel system in which such measurements can be made readily and reproducibly to study the temporal development and spatial succession of microbial communities during biodegradation of organic pollutants at interfaces within such environments.
有机污染物对含水层的污染威胁着地下水资源和环境。微生物群落对有机污染物的原位生物降解对于污染场地的修复非常重要，但我们对微生物发展与污染物生物降解之间关系的理解还很有限。一个特别的挑战是理解附着在固体表面上但无法通过常规地下水采样获取的微生物的原位状态。我们开发了新型的流动微宇宙，并研究了在苯酚降解系统中微生物群落结构和功能的动态变化。用来自受苯酚污染含水层羽流的复杂微生物群落接种这些微宇宙，导致最初由少数几个物种主导的种群建立，这些物种大多附着在固体基质上。最初，苯酚的生物降解不完全，但随着微生物群落结构变得更加复杂，苯酚的生物降解更加广泛和完全。这些结果在独立的微宇宙之间得到了复制，表明存在着物种的确定性演替。这项工作证明了在评估微生物对有机污染物的生物降解潜力时，检查群落动态的重要性。它提供了一个新颖的系统，可以在其中方便且可重复地进行此类测量，以研究在这种环境中界面处有机污染物生物降解过程中微生物群落的时间发展和空间演替。
