Water Treatment and Reuse Laboratory, Water Researches and Technologies Centre of Bordj-Cedria, BP. 273, 8020, Soliman, Tunisia.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2013 Jan;97(1):379-94. doi: 10.1007/s00253-012-3931-5. Epub 2012 Feb 23.
Several wastewater stabilization ponds (WSP) in Tunisia suffer periodically from the 'red-water' phenomenon due to blooming of purple sulfur bacteria, indicating that sulfur cycle is one of the main element cycles in these ponds. In this study, we investigated the microbial diversity of the El Menzeh WSP and focused in particular on the different functional groups of sulfur bacteria. For this purpose, we used denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of PCR-amplified fragments of the 16S rRNA gene and of different functional genes involved in microbial sulfur metabolism (dsrB, aprA, and pufM). Analyses of the 16S rRNA revealed a relatively high microbial diversity where Proteobacteria, Chlorobi, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria constitute the major bacterial groups. The dsrB and aprA gene analysis revealed the presence of deltaproteobacterial sulfate-reducing bacteria (i.e., Desulfobacter and Desulfobulbus), while the analysis of 16S rRNA, aprA, and pufM genes assigned the sulfur-oxidizing bacteria community to the photosynthetic representatives belonging to the Chlorobi (green sulfur bacteria) and the Proteobacteria (purple sulfur and non sulfur bacteria) phyla. These results point on the diversity of the metabolic processes within this wastewater plant and/or the availability of sulfate and diverse electron donors.
突尼斯的几个废水稳定塘（WSP）由于紫硫细菌的繁殖而周期性地出现“红水”现象，这表明硫循环是这些池塘中的主要元素循环之一。在这项研究中，我们调查了 El Menzeh WSP 的微生物多样性，并特别关注硫细菌的不同功能群。为此，我们使用了 PCR 扩增的 16S rRNA 基因和参与微生物硫代谢的不同功能基因（dsrB、aprA 和 pufM）片段的变性梯度凝胶电泳。16S rRNA 的分析显示出相对较高的微生物多样性，其中变形菌门、绿弯菌门、拟杆菌门和蓝藻门构成了主要的细菌群。dsrB 和 aprA 基因分析显示出存在δ变形菌硫酸盐还原菌（即脱硫杆菌和脱硫球菌），而 16S rRNA、aprA 和 pufM 基因的分析将硫氧化菌群落分配给属于绿弯菌门（绿色硫细菌）和变形菌门（紫色硫细菌和非硫细菌）的光合代表菌。这些结果表明了该废水处理厂内代谢过程的多样性和/或硫酸盐和多种电子供体的可用性。
