↓ Skip to main content

Stratified Microbial Structure and Activity in Sulfide- and Methane-Producing Anaerobic Sewer Biofilms

Overview of attention for article published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2014
Altmetric Badge

Mentioned by

twitter
2 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
85 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
110 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Stratified Microbial Structure and Activity in Sulfide- and Methane-Producing Anaerobic Sewer Biofilms
Published in
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2014
DOI 10.1128/aem.02146-14
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jing Sun, Shihu Hu, Keshab Raj Sharma, Bing-Jie Ni, Zhiguo Yuan

Abstract

Simultaneous production of sulfide and methane by anaerobic sewer biofilms has recently been observed, suggesting that sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and methanogenic archaea (MA), microorganisms known to compete for the same substrates, can coexist in this environment. This study investigated the community structures and activities of SRB and MA in anaerobic sewer biofilms (average thickness of 800 μm) using a combination of microelectrode measurements, molecular techniques and mathematical modelling. It was seen that sulfide was mainly produced in the outer layer of the biofilm, between 0 - 300 μm, which is in good agreement with the distribution of SRB population as revealed by cryosection - fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). SRB have a higher relative abundance of 20% on the surface layer, which decreased gradually to below 3% at a depth of 400 μm. In contrast, MA mainly inhabited the inner layer of the biofilm. Their relative abundances increased from 10% to 75% at depths of 200 μm and 700 μm, respectively, from the biofilm surface layer. High throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA amplicons showed that SRB in the biofilm were mainly affiliated with five genera: Desulfobulbus, Desulfomicrobium, Desulfovibrio, Desulfatiferula and Desulforegula, while about 90% of the MA population belonged to the genus Methanosaeta. The spatial organization of SRB and MA revealed by pryosequencing were consistent with the FISH results. A biofilm model was constructed to simulate the SRB and MA distributions in the anaerobic sewer biofilm. The good fit between model predictions and the experimental data indicates that the coexistence and spatial structure of SRB and MA in the biofilm resulted from the microbial types, their metabolic transformations and interactions with substrates.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 110 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 2 2%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Unknown 107 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 26 24%
Student > Master 15 14%
Researcher 14 13%
Student > Bachelor 7 6%
Student > Doctoral Student 6 5%
Other 15 14%
Unknown 27 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 24 22%
Environmental Science 23 21%
Engineering 18 16%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 4%
Chemistry 4 4%
Other 4 4%
Unknown 33 30%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 October 2014.
All research outputs
#19,962,154
of 25,394,764 outputs
Outputs from Applied and Environmental Microbiology
#17,475
of 19,169 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#172,504
of 250,182 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Applied and Environmental Microbiology
#115
of 161 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,394,764 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 18th percentile – i.e., 18% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 19,169 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.7. This one is in the 7th percentile – i.e., 7% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 250,182 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 26th percentile – i.e., 26% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 161 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 24th percentile – i.e., 24% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.