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Pyrosequencing reveals bacterial community differences in composting and vermicomposting on the stabilization of mixed sewage sludge and cattle dung

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

This study aimed to compare the microbial community structures and compositions in composting and vermicomposting processes. We applied 454 high-throughput pyrosequencing to analyze the 16S rRNA gene of bacteria obtained from bio-stabilization of sewage sludge and cattle dung. Results demonstrated that vermicomposting process presented higher operational taxonomic units and bacterial diversity than the composting. Analysis using weighted UniFrac indicated that composting exhibited higher effects on shaping microbial community structure than the vermicomposting. The succession of dominant bacteria was also detected during composting. Firmicutes was the dominant bacteria in the thermophilic phase of composting and shifted to Actinomycetes in the maturing stage. By contrast, Proteobacteria accounted for the highest proportions in the whole process of the vermicomposting. Furthermore, vermicomposting contained more uncultured and unidentified bacteria at the taxonomy level of genus than the composting. In summary, the bacterial community during composting significantly differed from that during vermicomposting. These two techniques played different roles in changing the diversity and composition of microbial communities.

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Acknowledgments

The research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51109161), the PhD Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20110072120029), the Fundamental Research Funds for The Central Universities (0400219187), and the National Spark Program of China (2010GA680004). We would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Baoyi Lv

  2. Institute of Biofilm Technology, Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Baoyi Lv, Meiyan Xing & Jian Yang

  3. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Liangbo Zhang

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  1. Baoyi Lv
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  2. Meiyan Xing
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Correspondence to Meiyan Xing.

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Lv, B., Xing, M., Yang, J. et al. Pyrosequencing reveals bacterial community differences in composting and vermicomposting on the stabilization of mixed sewage sludge and cattle dung. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 10703–10712 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6884-7

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