Development and application of an enzymatic and cell flotation treatment for the recovery of viable microbial cells from environmental matrices such as anaerobic sludge
2011
Braun, Florence | Hamelin, Jérôme, J. | Gévaudan, Gaelle | Patureau, Dominique | Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement [Narbonne] (LBE) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro) | We gratefully acknowledge the financial support given for this research by the Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maitrise de l'Energie (ADEME) and the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). This work has been funded by ADEME (convention number: 0906C0008) from the Programme National de Recherche sur les Perturbateurs Endocriniens (PNRPE).
International audience
Show more [+] Less [-]English. Efficient dissociation of microorganisms from their aggregate matrix is required to study the microorganisms without interaction with their native environment (e.g., biofilms, flocs, granules, etc.) and to assess their community composition through the application of molecular or microscopy techniques. To this end, we combined enzymatic treatments and a cell extraction by density gradient to efficiently recover anaerobic microorganisms from urban wastewater treatment plant sludge. The enzymes employed (amylase, cellulase, DNase, and pectinase) as a pretreatment softly disintegrated the extrapolymeric substances (EPS) interlocked with the microorganisms. The potential damaging effects of the applied procedure on bacterial and archaeal communities were assessed by studying the variations in density (using quantitative PCR), diversity (using capillary electrophoresis single-strand conformation polymorphism fingerprinting [CE-SSCP]), and activity (using a standard anaerobic activity test) of the extracted microorganisms. The protocol preserved the general capacity of the microbial community to produce methane under anaerobic conditions and its diversity; particularly the archaeal community was not affected in terms of either density or structure. This cell extraction procedure from the matrix materials offers interesting perspectives for metabolic, microscopic, and molecular assays of microbial communities present in complex matrices constituted by bioaggregates or biofilms.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by Institut national de la recherche agronomique