Anaerobic digestion of renewable biomass: thermophilic temperature governs methanogen population dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Beet silage and beet juice were digested continuously as representative energy crops in a thermophilic biogas fermentor for more than 7 years. Fluorescence microscopy of 15 samples covering a period of 650 days revealed that a decrease in temperature from 60 degrees C to 55 degrees C converted a morphologically uniform archaeal population (rods) into a population of methanogens exhibiting different cellular morphologies (rods and coccoid cells). A subsequent temperature increase back to 60 degrees C reestablished the uniform morphology of methanogens observed in the previous 60 degrees C period. In order to verify these observations, representative samples were investigated by amplified rRNA gene restriction analysis (ARDRA) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Both methods confi

SUBMITTER: Krakat N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2838025 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature