Directed evolution to produce sludge communities with improved oxygen uptake abilities.

Two activated sludge cultures, seeded with activated sludge from the same source, were cultivated for 370 days in synthetic wastewater. Both cultures were transferred weekly to fresh medium; one culture was operated at high dissolved oxygen (DO) (near saturation) and the other at low DO (0.25 mg O2/L). There were significant changes in the abundances of bacterial species and phyla present in each culture throughout the 370-day operational period. In the low DO culture, over time, there was a continuously increasing proportion of cells of species known to encode truncated hemoglobins (Hbs). These are the types of Hbs which may enhance delivery of oxygen to the respiratory chain, to enhance ATP production, especially under low aeration conditions. The levels of heme b, the heme found in Vitreoscilla hemoglobin, increased in parallel to the increase in Hb-encoding species, to much higher levels in the low DO culture than in the high DO culture. Specific oxygen uptake rates increased by 3 % for the high DO culture near the end of the 370-day period, while those for the low DO culture increased steadily to a level 28 % higher than that of the starting culture. Thus, imposition of low DO conditions may, due to selection for Hb-expressing species, be useful in developing bacterial communities with enhanced ability to function efficiently in aerobic wastewater treatment, especially under low aeration conditions.