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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 1999, p. 4767-4774, Vol. 65, No. 11
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Quantification of Syntrophic Fatty Acid-beta -Oxidizing Bacteria in a Mesophilic Biogas Reactor by Oligonucleotide Probe Hybridization

Kaare H. Hansen,1,2 Birgitte K. Ahring,2 and Lutgarde Raskin1,*

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801,1 and Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark2

Received 19 November 1998/Accepted 16 July 1999

Small-subunit rRNA sequences were obtained for two saturated fatty acid-beta -oxidizing syntrophic bacteria, Syntrophomonas sapovorans and Syntrophomonas wolfei LYB, and sequence analysis confirmed their classification as members of the family Syntrophomonadaceae. S. wolfei LYB was closely related to S. wolfei subsp. wolfei, but S. sapovorans did not cluster with the other members of the genus Syntrophomonas. Five oligonucleotide probes targeting the small-subunit rRNA of different groups within the family Syntrophomonadaceae, which contains all currently known saturated fatty acid-beta -oxidizing syntrophic bacteria, were developed and characterized. The probes were designed to be specific at the family, genus, and species levels and were characterized by temperature-of-dissociation and specificity studies. To demonstrate the usefulness of the probes for the detection and quantification of saturated fatty acid-beta -oxidizing syntrophic bacteria in methanogenic environments, the microbial community structure of a sample from a full-scale biogas plant was determined. Hybridization results with probes for syntrophic bacteria and methanogens were compared to specific methanogenic activities and microbial numbers determined with most-probable-number estimates. Most of the methanogenic rRNA was comprised of Methanomicrobiales rRNA, suggesting that members of this order served as the main hydrogen-utilizing microorganisms. Between 0.2 and 1% of the rRNA was attributed to the Syntrophomonadaceae, of which the majority was accounted for by the genus Syntrophomonas.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3221 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, 205 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801. Phone: (217) 333-6964. Fax: (217) 333-6968. E-mail: lraskin{at}uiuc.edu.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 1999, p. 4767-4774, Vol. 65, No. 11
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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