Convergent Microbial Community Formation in Replicate Anaerobic Reactors Inoculated from Different Sources and Treating Ersatz Crew Waste.

ABSTRACT: Future manned space travel will require efficient recycling of nutrients from organic waste back into food production. Microbial systems are a low-energy, efficient means of nutrient recycling, but their use in a life support system requires predictability and reproducibility in community formation and reactor performance. To assess the reproducibility of microbial community formation in fixed-film reactors, we inoculated replicate anaerobic reactors from two methanogenic inocula: a lab-scale fixed-film, plug-flow anaerobic reactor and an acidic transitional fen. Reactors were operated under identical conditions, and we assessed reactor performance and used 16s rDNA amplicon sequencing to determine microbial community formation. Reactor microbial communities were dominated by similar group

SUBMITTER: Steinberg LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8706314 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature