PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Justus Hardegen
AU  - Adriel Latorre-Pérez
AU  - Cristina Vilanova
AU  - Thomas Günther
AU  - Claudia Simeonov
AU  - Manuel Porcar
AU  - Olaf Luschnig
AU  - Christian Abendroth
TI  - Liquid co-substrates repower sewage microbiomes
AID  - 10.1101/261339
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 261339
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/02/07/261339.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/02/07/261339.full
AB  - A range of parameters are known to shape the methanogenic communities of biogas-producing digesters and to strongly influence the amount of biogas produced. In this work, liquid and solid fractions of grass biomass were used separately for semicontinuous batch methanation using sewage sludge as seed sludge. During 6 months of incubation, the amount of input COD was increased gradually, and the underlying methanogenic microbiome was assessed by means of microscopy-based automated cell counting and full-length 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. In this sense, we prove for the first time the suitability of the ONTTMMinION platform as a monitoring tool for anaerobic digestion systems. According to our results, solid-fed batches were highly unstable at higher COD input concentrations, and kept Methanosaeta Nspp. -typically associated to sewage sludge-as the majoritary methanogenic archaea. In contrast, liquid-fed batches developed a more stable microbiome, and proved enriched in Methanosarcina spp. This work demonstrates the high repowering potential of microbiomes from sewage sludge digesters, and highlight the effectiveness of liquefied substrates for anaerobic digestions.