Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Intracellular Polyphosphate Length Characterization in Polyphosphate Accumulating Microorganisms (PAOs): Implications in PAO Phenotypic Diversity and Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal Performance

Dongqi Wang
* ,
Yueyun Li
,
Helen Cope
,
Xiaoxiao Li
,
Peisheng He
,
Cong Liu
,
Guangyu Li
,
Sheikh Rahman
ORCID logo ,
Nicholas Tooker
,
Charles Bott
,
Annalisa Onnis-Hayden
,
Jyoti Singh
,
Alistair Elfick
,
Ricardo Marques
,
Henning Jessen
ORCID logo ,
Adrian Oehmen
,
April Gu
*
Version 1 : Received: 16 September 2021 / Approved: 17 September 2021 / Online: 17 September 2021 (12:50:48 CEST)

How to cite: Wang, D.; Li, Y.; Cope, H.; Li, X.; He, P.; Liu, C.; Li, G.; Rahman, S.; Tooker, N.; Bott, C.; Onnis-Hayden, A.; Singh, J.; Elfick, A.; Marques, R.; Jessen, H.; Oehmen, A.; Gu, A. Intracellular Polyphosphate Length Characterization in Polyphosphate Accumulating Microorganisms (PAOs): Implications in PAO Phenotypic Diversity and Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal Performance. Preprints 2021, 2021090317. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0317.v1 Wang, D.; Li, Y.; Cope, H.; Li, X.; He, P.; Liu, C.; Li, G.; Rahman, S.; Tooker, N.; Bott, C.; Onnis-Hayden, A.; Singh, J.; Elfick, A.; Marques, R.; Jessen, H.; Oehmen, A.; Gu, A. Intracellular Polyphosphate Length Characterization in Polyphosphate Accumulating Microorganisms (PAOs): Implications in PAO Phenotypic Diversity and Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal Performance. Preprints 2021, 2021090317. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0317.v1

Abstract

Polyphosphate (polyP) accumulating organisms (PAOs) are the key agent to perform enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) activity, and intracellular polyP plays a key role in this process. Potential associations between EBPR performance and the polyP structure have been suggested, but are yet to be extensively investigated, mainly due to the lack of established methods for polyP characterization in the EBPR system. In this study, we explored and demonstrated that single-cell Raman spectroscopy (SCRS) can be employed for characterizing intracellular polyPs of PAOs in complex environmental samples such as EBPR systems. The results, for the first time, revealed distinct distribution patterns of polyP length (as Raman peak position) in PAOs in lab-scale EBPR reactors that were dominated with different PAO types, as well as among different full-scale EBPR systems with varying configurations. Furthermore, SCRS revealed distinctive polyP composition/features among PAO phenotypic sub-groups, which are likely associated with phylogenetic and/or phenotypic diversity in EBPR communities, highlighting the possible resolving power of SCRS at the microdiversity level. To validate the observed polyP length variations via SCRS, we also performed and compared bulk polyP length characteristics in EBPR biomass using conventional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and solution 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (31P-NMR) methods. The results are consistent with the SCRS findings and confirmed the variations in the polyP lengths among different EBPR systems. Compared to conventional methods, SCRS exhibited advantages as compared to conventional methods, including the ability to characterize in situ the intracellular polyPs at subcellular resolution in a label-free and non-destructive way, and the capability to capture subtle and detailed biochemical fingerprints of cells for phenotypic classification. SCRS also has recognized limitations in comparison with 31P-NMR and PAGE, such as the inability to quantitatively detect the average polyP chain length and its distribution. The results provided initial evidence for the potential of SCRS-enabled polyP characterization as an alternative and complementary microbial community phenotyping method to facilitate the phenotype-function (performance) relationship deduction in EBPR systems.

Keywords

EBPR; polyphosphate chain length; NMR; polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; single-cell Raman spectroscopy

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Download PDF Download Supplementary

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0
Metrics 0
Get PDF Supplementary Files Cite Share 0
Bookmark BibSonomy Mendeley Reddit Delicious
×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.