Can anaerobic ammonium oxidation be coupled with nitrous oxide reduction?

Abstract

Anaerobic ammonium ({\text{NH}}_{\text{4}}^{+}) oxidation is one of the key processes in nitrogen cycling. After the canonical pathway for it using {\text{NO}}_{\text{2}}^{-} as the electron acceptor was first discovered, novel pathways for it using Fe³⁺, Mn⁴⁺, {\text{SO}}_{\text{4}}^{\text{2}-}, or {\text{AsO}}_{\text{4}}^{\text{3}-}, as electron acceptors have recently been confirmed. Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a strong oxidant, and there is currently no report on whether it can act as an electron acceptor to couple with anaerobic ammonium oxidation in natural habitats. From a thermodynamic perspective, the potential anaerobic ammonium oxidation driven by N₂O reduction generates much higher free energy than the canonical anaerobic ammonium oxidation driven by {\text{NO}}_{\text{2}}^{-} reduction, indicating that it is more likely to occur spontaneously. Some specific habitats such as ammonium-rich wastewater, with low levels of active organic carbon and high concentration of N₂O may be favorable for N₂O-mediated anaerobic ammonium oxidation. The extracellular electron transfer between symbiotic bacteria may be an important way of electron transfer in this coupling process. By using enrichment culture combined with ¹⁵N labeling technique, oxidation rate, electron transfer pathway, and metagenome (and transcriptome) information of this coupling process could be powerfully investigated. The study could expanding our understanding of transformation process in nitrogen biogeochemical cycle.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

nitrogen transformation / redox process / coupling mechanism / electron transfer / ¹⁵N stable isotope labeling

Highlight

	● N2O could be a potential electron acceptor for anaerobic ammonium oxidation.
	● This perspective will expand our understanding of transformation process in N cycle.

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