A novel ammonia-oxidizing archaeon from wastewater treatment plant: Its enrichment, physiological and genomic characteristics

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are recently found to participate in the ammonia removal processes in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), similar to their bacterial counterparts. However, due to lack of cultivated AOA strains from WWTPs, their functions and contributions in these systems remain unclear. Here we report a novel AOA strain SAT1 enriched from activated sludge, with its physiological and genomic characteristics investigated. The maximal 16S rRNA gene similarity between SAT1 and other reported AOA strain is 96% (with “Ca. Nitrosotenuis chungbukensis”), and it is affiliated with Wastewater Cluster B (WWC-B) based on amoA gene phylogeny, a cluster within group I.1a and specific for activated sludge. Our strain is autotrophic, mesophilic (25 °C–33 °C) and neutrophilic (pH 5.0–7.0). Its genome size is 1.62 Mb, with a large fragment inversion (accounted for 68% genomic size) inside. The strain could not utilize urea due to truncation of the urea transporter gene. The lack of the pathways to synthesize usual compatible solutes makes it intolerant to high salinity (>0.03%), but could adapt to low salinity (0.005%) environments. This adaptation, together with possibly enhanced cell-biofilm attachment ability, makes it suitable for WWTPs environment. We propose the name “Candidatus Nitrosotenuis cloacae” for the strain SAT1.