Correlation of extracellular polymeric substances and microbial community structure in denitrification biofilm exposed to adverse conditions

Microbial community may respond to different adverse conditions and result in the variation of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in denitrification biofilm; this study discovered the role of EPS in accordance with the analysis of cyclic diguanylate (c‐di‐GMP) and electron equilibrium (EE) under low organic loading rate, shock organic loading rate and low temperature conditions. Good nitrate removal performance could be achieved under shock organic loading rate and low temperature conditions; however, owing to the low organic loading rate, the carbon source was preferentially utilized for biomass growth. Tightly bound EPS (TB‐EPS) contents progressively increased and facilitated cell adhesion and biofilm formation. The stable TB protein (TB‐PN) content in TB‐EPS built a cross‐linked network to maintain internal biofilm structure and led to the rapid biosynthesis of polysaccharides, which could further enhance microbial adhesion and improve nitrate removal. C‐di‐GMP played an important role in biomass retention and biofilm formation, based on the correlation analysis of c‐di‐GMP and EPS. TB polysaccharide (TB‐PS) contents presented a significant positive correlation with c‐di‐GMP content, microbial adhesion and biofilm stabilization was further enhanced through c‐di‐GMP regulation. In addition, a remarkable negative correlation between electron deletion rate (EDR) and TB‐PN and TB‐PS was discovered, and TB‐PS was required to serve as energy source to enhance denitrification according to EE analysis. Surprisingly, dynamic microbial community was observed due to the drastic community succession under low temperature conditions, and the discrepancy between the dominant species for denitrification was found under shock organic loading rate and low temperature conditions. The notable increase in bacterial strains Simlicispira, Pseudomonas and Chryseobacterium was conducive to biofilm formation and denitrification under shock organic loading rate, while Dechloromonas and Zoogloea dramatically enriched for nitrate removal under low temperature conditions. The high abundance of Dechloromonas improved the secretion of EPS through the downstream signal transduction, and the c‐di‐GMP conserved in Pseudomonas concurrently facilitated to enhance exopolysaccharide production to shock organic loading rate and low temperature conditions.