School of Environment, State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 73, Huanghe Road, Nangang, Harbin 150090, Heilongjiang, China.
Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637551, Singapore.
Environ Sci Technol. 2021 Jan 19;55(2):1197-1208. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02664. Epub 2020 Nov 13.
Nitrate/nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation (n-DAMO) is critical for mitigating methane emission and returning reactive nitrogen to the atmosphere. The genomes of n-DAMO archaea show that they have the potential to couple anaerobic oxidation of methane to dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA). However, physiological details of DNRA for n-DAMO archaea were not reported yet. This work demonstrated n-DAMO archaea coupling the anaerobic oxidation of methane to DNRA, which fueled Anammox in a methane-fed membrane biofilm reactor with nitrate as only electron acceptor. Microelectrode analysis revealed that ammonium accumulated where nitrite built up in the biofilm. Ammonium production and significant upregulation of gene expression for DNRA were detected in suspended n-DAMO culture with nitrite exposure, indicating that nitrite triggered DNRA by n-DAMO archaea. N-labeling batch experiments revealed that n-DAMO archaea produced ammonium from nitrate rather than from external nitrite. Localized gradients of nitrite produced by n-DAMO archaea in biofilms induced ammonium production via the DNRA process, which promoted nitrite consumption by Anammox bacteria and in turn helped n-DAMO archaea resist stress from nitrite. As biofilms predominate in various ecosystems, anaerobic oxidation of methane coupled with DNRA could be an important link between the global carbon and nitrogen cycles that should be investigated in future research.
硝酸盐/亚硝酸盐依赖型厌氧甲烷氧化(n-DAMO)对于减少甲烷排放和将活性氮返回大气至关重要。n-DAMO 古菌的基因组表明,它们有可能将甲烷的厌氧氧化与异化硝酸盐还原为铵(DNRA)相偶联。然而,n-DAMO 古菌的 DNRA 生理学细节尚未报道。本研究证明 n-DAMO 古菌能够将甲烷的厌氧氧化与 DNRA 偶联,在以硝酸盐为唯一电子受体的甲烷进料膜生物膜反应器中,为 Anammox 提供燃料。微电极分析表明,在生物膜中硝酸盐积累的地方积累了铵。在有亚硝酸盐暴露的悬浮 n-DAMO 培养物中检测到铵的产生和 DNRA 基因表达的显著上调,表明 n-DAMO 古菌通过亚硝酸盐触发了 DNRA。N 标记批实验表明,n-DAMO 古菌从硝酸盐而不是外部亚硝酸盐中产生铵。n-DAMO 古菌在生物膜中产生的亚硝酸盐局部梯度通过 DNRA 过程诱导铵的产生,从而促进 Anammox 细菌消耗亚硝酸盐,反过来有助于 n-DAMO 古菌抵抗亚硝酸盐的压力。由于生物膜在各种生态系统中占主导地位,因此与 DNRA 偶联的甲烷厌氧氧化可能是全球碳氮循环中的一个重要环节,未来的研究应该对此进行调查。