Cargando…

Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture

BACKGROUND: Over three-fifths of the world’s known crude oil cannot be recovered using state-of-the-art techniques, but microbial conversion of petroleum hydrocarbons trapped in oil reservoirs to methane is one promising path to increase the recovery of fossil fuels. The process requires cooperation...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ma, Ting-Ting, Liu, Lai-Yan, Rui, Jun-Peng, Yuan, Quan, Feng, Ding-shan, Zhou, Zheng, Dai, Li-Rong, Zeng, Wan-Qiu, Zhang, Hui, Cheng, Lei
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5584521/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28878822
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13068-017-0895-9
_version_ 1783261481425436672
author Ma, Ting-Ting
Liu, Lai-Yan
Rui, Jun-Peng
Yuan, Quan
Feng, Ding-shan
Zhou, Zheng
Dai, Li-Rong
Zeng, Wan-Qiu
Zhang, Hui
Cheng, Lei
author_facet Ma, Ting-Ting
Liu, Lai-Yan
Rui, Jun-Peng
Yuan, Quan
Feng, Ding-shan
Zhou, Zheng
Dai, Li-Rong
Zeng, Wan-Qiu
Zhang, Hui
Cheng, Lei
author_sort Ma, Ting-Ting
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Over three-fifths of the world’s known crude oil cannot be recovered using state-of-the-art techniques, but microbial conversion of petroleum hydrocarbons trapped in oil reservoirs to methane is one promising path to increase the recovery of fossil fuels. The process requires cooperation between syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea, which can be affected by sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRPs). However, the effects of sulfate on hydrocarbon degradation and methane production remain elusive, and the microbial communities involved are not well understood. RESULTS: In this study, a methanogenic hexadecane-degrading enrichment culture was treated with six different concentrations of sulfate ranging from 0.5 to 25 mM. Methane production and maximum specific methane production rate gradually decreased to 44 and 56% with sulfate concentrations up to 25 mM, respectively. There was a significant positive linear correlation between the sulfate reduction/methane production ratio and initial sulfate concentration, which remained constant during the methane production phase. The apparent methanogenesis fractionation factor (α (app)) gradually increased during the methane production phase in each treatment, the α (app) for the treatments with lower sulfate (0.5–4 mM) eventually plateaued at ~1.047, but that for the treatment with 10–25 mM sulfate only reached ~1.029. The relative abundance levels of Smithella and Methanoculleus increased almost in parallel with the increasing sulfate concentrations. Furthermore, the predominant sulfate reducer communities shifted from Desulfobacteraceae in the low-sulfate cultures to Desulfomonile in the high-sulfate cultures. CONCLUSION: The distribution of hexadecane carbon between methane-producing and sulfate-reducing populations is dependent on the initial sulfate added, and not affected during the methane production period. There was a relative increase in hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis activity over time for all sulfate treatments, whereas the total activity was inhibited by sulfate addition. Both Smithella and Methanoculleus, the key alkane degraders and methane producers, can adapt to sulfate stress. Specifically, different SRP populations were stimulated at various sulfate concentrations. These results could help to evaluate interactions between sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations during anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation in oil reservoirs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-017-0895-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5584521
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-55845212017-09-06 Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture Ma, Ting-Ting Liu, Lai-Yan Rui, Jun-Peng Yuan, Quan Feng, Ding-shan Zhou, Zheng Dai, Li-Rong Zeng, Wan-Qiu Zhang, Hui Cheng, Lei Biotechnol Biofuels Research BACKGROUND: Over three-fifths of the world’s known crude oil cannot be recovered using state-of-the-art techniques, but microbial conversion of petroleum hydrocarbons trapped in oil reservoirs to methane is one promising path to increase the recovery of fossil fuels. The process requires cooperation between syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea, which can be affected by sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRPs). However, the effects of sulfate on hydrocarbon degradation and methane production remain elusive, and the microbial communities involved are not well understood. RESULTS: In this study, a methanogenic hexadecane-degrading enrichment culture was treated with six different concentrations of sulfate ranging from 0.5 to 25 mM. Methane production and maximum specific methane production rate gradually decreased to 44 and 56% with sulfate concentrations up to 25 mM, respectively. There was a significant positive linear correlation between the sulfate reduction/methane production ratio and initial sulfate concentration, which remained constant during the methane production phase. The apparent methanogenesis fractionation factor (α (app)) gradually increased during the methane production phase in each treatment, the α (app) for the treatments with lower sulfate (0.5–4 mM) eventually plateaued at ~1.047, but that for the treatment with 10–25 mM sulfate only reached ~1.029. The relative abundance levels of Smithella and Methanoculleus increased almost in parallel with the increasing sulfate concentrations. Furthermore, the predominant sulfate reducer communities shifted from Desulfobacteraceae in the low-sulfate cultures to Desulfomonile in the high-sulfate cultures. CONCLUSION: The distribution of hexadecane carbon between methane-producing and sulfate-reducing populations is dependent on the initial sulfate added, and not affected during the methane production period. There was a relative increase in hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis activity over time for all sulfate treatments, whereas the total activity was inhibited by sulfate addition. Both Smithella and Methanoculleus, the key alkane degraders and methane producers, can adapt to sulfate stress. Specifically, different SRP populations were stimulated at various sulfate concentrations. These results could help to evaluate interactions between sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations during anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation in oil reservoirs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-017-0895-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2017-09-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5584521/ /pubmed/28878822 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13068-017-0895-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Ma, Ting-Ting
Liu, Lai-Yan
Rui, Jun-Peng
Yuan, Quan
Feng, Ding-shan
Zhou, Zheng
Dai, Li-Rong
Zeng, Wan-Qiu
Zhang, Hui
Cheng, Lei
Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture
title Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture
title_full Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture
title_fullStr Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture
title_full_unstemmed Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture
title_short Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture
title_sort coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5584521/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28878822
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13068-017-0895-9
work_keys_str_mv AT matingting coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT liulaiyan coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT ruijunpeng coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT yuanquan coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT fengdingshan coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT zhouzheng coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT dailirong coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT zengwanqiu coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT zhanghui coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture
AT chenglei coexistenceandcompetitionofsulfatereducingandmethanogenicpopulationsinananaerobichexadecanedegradingculture