Deciphering intricate associations between vigorous development and novel metabolic preferences of partial denitrification/anammox granular consortia within mainstream municipal wastewater

Xiaonong Zhang; Zixuan Zhu; Xingxing Zhang; Naif Abdullah Al-Dhabi; Li Zhou; Wangwang Tang; Peng Wu

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2025.132074

Deciphering intricate associations between vigorous development and novel metabolic preferences of partial denitrification/anammox granular consortia within mainstream municipal wastewater

Bioresour Technol. 2025 Jan 13:132074. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2025.132074. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xiaonong Zhang¹, Zixuan Zhu¹, Xingxing Zhang², Naif Abdullah Al-Dhabi³, Li Zhou¹, Wangwang Tang⁴, Peng Wu⁵

Affiliations

¹ National and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Municipal Sewage Resource Utilization Technology, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, PR China.
² School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China.
³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁴ College of Environmental Science and Engineering and Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Ministry of Education), Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China.
⁵ National and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Municipal Sewage Resource Utilization Technology, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, PR China. Electronic address: wupengniu@126.com.

PMID: 39814152
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2025.132074

Abstract

There is limited understanding of the granular partial denitrification/anammox (PD/A) microbiota and metabolic hierarchy specific to municipal wastewater treatment, particularly concerning the multi-mechanisms of functional differentiation and granulation tendencies under high-loading shocks. Therefore, this study utilized fragmented mature biofilm as the exclusive inoculum to rapidly establish a granular PD/A system. Following long-term feeding with municipal wastewater, PD/A process reached a total nitrogen removal efficiency of 97.7%, with anammox contributing over 93%. The dominant filamentous bacteria that supported the granular structure underwent significant changes throughout the operational period. Notably, the mature granular PD/A process demonstrated a distinct metabolic preference for recalcitrant, labile, and xenobiotic organics found in municipal wastewater. The biosynthesis of quorum sensing signaling molecules and core cofactors further enhanced the re-development and substrate metabolic adaptations of PD/A granules in real wastewater environments. This research illuminates the micro-ecological succession and metabolic heterogeneity of the granular PD/A process under mainstream loading.

Keywords: Granular sludge; Metabolic heterogeneity; Municipal sewage; Nutrient preference; Partial denitrification/anammox.