A heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification bacterium Halomonas venusta TJPU05 suitable for nitrogen removal from high-salinity wastewater

Highlights

• H. venusta TJPU05 showed excellent HN-AD ability at high salinity.

• Successful expression of AMO, HAO, NAR and NIR confirmed the HN-AD ability of TJPU05.

• H. venusta TJPU05 could tolerate high salt and high nitrogen environment.

• H. venusta TJPU05 is a promising candidate for the bio-treatment of AW.

Abstract

A novel salt-tolerant heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) bacterium was isolated and identified as Halomonas venusta TJPU05 (H. venusta TJPU05). The nitrogen removal performance of H. venusta TJPU05 in simulated water (SW) with sole or mixed nitrogen sources and in actual wastewater (AW) with high concentration of salt and nitrogen was investigated. The results showed that 86.12% of NH₄⁺-N, 95.68% of NO₃^–-N, 100% of NO₂^–-N and 84.57% of total nitrogen (TN) could be removed from SW with sole nitrogen sources within 24 h at the utmost. H. venusta TJPU05 could maximally remove 84.06% of NH₄⁺-N, 92.33% of NO₃^–-N, 92.9% of NO₂^–-N and 77.73% of TN from SW with mixed nitrogen source when the salinity was above 8%. The application of H. venusta TJPU05 in treating AW with high salt and high ammonia nitrogen led to removal efficiencies of 50.96%, 47.28% and 43.19% for NH₄⁺-N, NO₃^–-N and TN respectively without any optimization. Furthermore, the activities of nitrogen removal–related enzymes of the strain were also investigated. The successful detection of high level activities of ammonia oxygenase (AMO), hydroxylamine oxidase (HAO), nitrate reductase (NAR) and nitrite reductase (NIR) enzymes under high salinity condition further proved the HN-AD and salt-tolerance capacity of H. venusta TJPU05. These results demonstrated that the H. venusta TJPU05 has great potential in treating high-salinity nitrogenous wastewater.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Salt-tolerant bacteria / H. venusta TJPU05 / Heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification / High-salinity wastewater

References

[1] Abou-Elela S I, Kamel M M, Fawzy M E (2010). Biological treatment of saline wastewater using a salt-tolerant microorganism. Desalination, 250(1): 1–5

[2] Cheng R, Wang X, Zhu H, Yan B, Shutes B, Xu Y, Fu B, Wen H (2020). Isolation and characterization of a salt-tolerant denitrifying bacterium Alishewanella sp. F2 from seawall muddy water. Scientific Reports, 10(1): 10002

[3] Duan J, Fang H, Su B, Chen J, Lin J (2015). Characterization of a halophilic heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification bacterium and its application on treatment of saline wastewater. Bioresource Technology, 179: 421–428

[4] Ge Q L, Yue X P, Wang G Y (2015). Simultaneous heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification at high initial phenol concentration by isolated bacterium Diaphorobacter sp. PD-7. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 23(5): 835–841in Chinese)

[5] Guo Y, Zhou X, Li Y, Li K, Wang C, Liu J, Yan D, Liu Y, Yang D, Xing J (2013). Heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification by a novel Halomonas campisalis. Biotechnology Letters, 35(12): 2045–2049

[6] He T, Xie D, Li Z, Ni J, Sun Q (2017). Ammonium stimulates nitrate reduction during simultaneous nitrification and denitrification process by Arthrobacter arilaitensis Y-10. Bioresource Technology, 239: 66–73

[7] He X, Sun Q, Xu T, Dai M, Wei D (2019). Removal of nitrogen by heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification of a novel halotolerant bacterium Pseudomonas mendocina TJPU04. Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, 42(5): 853–866

[8] Huang F, Pan L, Lv N, Tang X (2017a). Characterization of novel Bacillus strain N31 from mariculture water capable of halophilic heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 124(5): 564–571

[9] Huang G D, Ou L M, Pan F, Wang Y Q, Fan G F, Liu G G, Wang W (2017b). Isolation of a novel heterotrophic nitrification–aerobic denitrification bacterium Serratia marcescens CL1502 from Deep-Sea Sediment. Environmental Engineering Science, 34(6): 453–459

[10] Joo H S, Hirai M, Shoda M (2006). Piggery wastewater treatment using Alcaligenes faecalis strain No. 4 with heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification. Water Research, 40(16): 3029–3036

[11] Li C J, He J M, Guo Q W, Wen D Q, Liang W C (2017). Removal methods for ammonia from high salinity and ammonia Wastewater. Guangdong Chemical Industry, 44: 202–203 (in Chinese)

[12] Li R, Zi X, Wang X, Zhang X, Gao H, Hu N (2013). Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus NY-4, a novel denitrifying, moderately halophilic marine bacterium. SpringerPlus, 2(1): 1–9

[13] Li Y X, Ling J Y, Chen P C, Chen J J, Dai R Z, Liao J S, Yu J J, Xu Y B (2021). Pseudomnas mendocina LYX: A novel aerobic bacterium with advantage of removing nitrate high effectively by assimilation and dissimilation simultaneously. Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering, 15(4): 57

[14] Pan C Z, Tan G Y A, Ge L Y, Chen C L, Wang J Y (2016). Microbial removal of carboxylic acids from 1,3-propanediol in glycerol anaerobic digestion effluent by PHAs-producing consortium. Biochemical Engineering Journal, 112: 269–276

[15] Qiu S J, Liu J J, Zhang L, Zhang Q, Peng Y Z (2021). Sludge fermentation liquid addition attained advanced nitrogen removal in low C/N ratio municipal wastewater through short-cut nitrification-denitrification and partial anammox. Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering, 15(2): 26

[16] Rajta A, Bhatia R, Setia H, Pathania P (2020). Role of heterotrophic aerobic denitrifying bacteria in nitrate removal from wastewater. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 128(5): 1261–1278

[17] Randall G W, Mulla D J (2001). Nitrate nitrogen in surface waters as influenced by climatic conditions and agricultural practices. Journal of Environmental Quality, 30(2): 337–344

[18] Ren J, Wei C, Ma H, Dai M, Fan J, Liu Y, Wu Y, Han R (2019). The nitrogen-removal efficiency of a novel high-efficiency salt-tolerant aerobic denitrifier, Halomonas Alkaliphile HRL-9, isolated from a seawater biofilter. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(22): 4451–4464

[19] Ruan Y, Taherzadeh M J, Kong D, Lu H, Zhao H, Xu X, Liu Y, Cai L (2020). Nitrogen removal performance and metabolic pathways analysis of a novel aerobic denitrifying Halotolerant Pseudomonas balearica Strain RAD-17. Microorganisms, 8(1): 72–89

[20] Wan W J, He D L, Xue Z J (2017). Removal of nitrogen and phosphorus by heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification of a denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating bacterium Enterobacter cloacae HW-15. Ecological Engineering, 99: 199–208

[21] Wang T, Jiang Z Z, Dong W B, Liang X Y, Zhang L H, Zhu Y M (2019a). Growth and nitrogen removal characteristics of Halomonas sp. B01 under high salinity. Annals of Microbiology, 69(13): 1425–1433

[22] Wang T, Li J, Zhang L H, Yu Y, Zhu Y M (2017). Simultaneous heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification at high concentrations of NaCl and ammonia nitrogen by Halomonas bacteria. Water Science &Technology, 76(2): 386–395

[23] Wang X, Zhu H, Shutes B, Fu B, Yan B, Yu X, Wen H, Chen X (2019b). Identification and denitrification characteristics of a salt-tolerant denitrifying bacterium Pannonibacter phragmitetus F1. AMB Express, 9(1): 193–204

[24] Wang Y, Chen H, Liu Y X, Ren R P, Lv Y K (2015). Effect of temperature, salinity, heavy metals, ammonium concentration, pH and dissolved oxygen on ammonium removal by an aerobic nitrifier. RSC Advances, 5(97): 79988–79996

[25] Wei R, Hui C, Zhang Y P, Jiang H, Zhao Y H, Du L N (2021). Nitrogen removal characteristics and predicted conversion pathways of a heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification bacterium P-1. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, 28(6): 7503–7514

[26] Yao R, Qiu L N, Zhang W W, Gong A J, Wang Z Y, Cai H (2014). Isolation and characteristics of heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification bacterium, Bacillus cereus X7 at high salinity. Advanced Materials Research, 864–867: 111–114

[27] Zhang F F, Zhou K, Xie F X, Zhao Q, Zhao Y J (2019a). Nitrogen removal characteristic and key enzymes activity of Pseudomonas alcaliphila AD-28. Microbiology China, 46(9): 2166–2174 (in Chinese)

[28] Zhang H H, Zhao Z F, Li S L, Chen S N, Huang T L, Li N, Yang S Y, Wang Y, Kou L Q, Zhang X Y (2019b). Nitrogen removal by mix-cultured aerobic denitrifying bacteria isolated by ultrasound: Performance, co-occurrence pattern and wastewater treatment. Chemical Engineering Journal, 372: 26–36

[29] Zhang M, Pan L Q, Su C, Liu L P, Dou L (2021). Simultaneous aerobic removal of phosphorus and nitrogen by a novel salt-tolerant phosphate-accumulating organism and the application potential in treatment of domestic sewage and aquaculture sewage. Science of the Total Environment, 758: 143580

[30] Zhang Q L, Liu Y, Ai G M, Miao L L, Zheng H Y, Liu Z P (2012). The characteristics of a novel heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification bacterium, Bacillus methylotrophicus strain L7. Bioresource Technology, 108: 35–44

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22075207) and the Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates (No. 201910058052).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2021 Higher Education Press