Metagenomic insight into the diffusion signal factor mediated social traits of anammox consortia after starvation

Xue-Ping Wang; Na-Na Han; Jia-Hui Yang; Nian-Si Fan; Ren-Cun Jin

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.124270

Metagenomic insight into the diffusion signal factor mediated social traits of anammox consortia after starvation

J Environ Manage. 2025 Jan 24:375:124270. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.124270. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xue-Ping Wang¹, Na-Na Han¹, Jia-Hui Yang¹, Nian-Si Fan², Ren-Cun Jin³

Affiliations

¹ School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
² School of Engineering, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
³ School of Engineering, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China. Electronic address: rcjin@hznu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39864165
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.124270

Abstract

Biomass starvation is common in biological wastewater treatment. As a social trait of microbial community, how quorum sensing (QS) regulated bacterial trade-off through interactions after starvation remains unclear. This study deciphered the mechanism of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) consortia in response to starvation, including reducing extracellular electron transfer (EET), adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) content and amino acid metabolism. Metagenomic analysis has shown that the addition of the diffusion signal factor (DSF) resulted in a high abundance of antioxidant genes, which contributed to achieving redox balance in anammox bacteria. There was an enrichment of Geobacter and Methanosarcina, which were QS-responsive direct interspecific electron transfer participants. Furthermore, DSF stimulated the nitrogen and carbon metabolism of Ca. Kuenenia_stuttgartiensis, promoting syntrophy of metabolic intermediates within microbial community. This study highlighted the effect of DSF on the microbial interaction patterns and deciphered the QS-based social traits of anammox consortia after starvation, facilitating the stable operation of the anammox process.

Keywords: Anammox consortia; Diffusion signal factor (DSF); Electron transfer; Microbial interaction; Quorum sensing; Starvation.