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Community Structure of Nitrifying and Denitrifying Bacteria from Effluents Discharged into Lake Victoria, Kenya

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Abstract

An active microbial community of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria is needed for efficient utilization of nitrogenous compounds from wastewater. In this study, we explored the bacterial community diversity and structure within rivers, treated and untreated wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging into Lake Victoria. Water samples were collected from rivers and WWTPs that drain into Lake Victoria. Physicochemical analysis was done to determine the level of nutrients or pollutant loading in the samples. Total community DNA was extracted, followed by Illumina high throughput sequencing to determine the total microbial community and abundance. Enrichment and isolation were then done to recover potential nitrifiers and denitrifiers. Physicochemical analysis pointed to high levels total nitrogen and ammonia in both treated and untreated WWTPs as compared to the samples from the lake and rivers. A total of 1,763 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) spread across 26 bacterial phyla were observed with the most dominant phylum being Proteobacteria. We observed a decreasing trend in diversity from the lake, rivers to WWTPs. The genus Planktothrix constituted 19% of the sequence reads in sample J2 collected from the lagoon. All the isolates recovered in this study were affiliated to three genera: Pseudomonas, Klebsiella and Enterobacter in the phylum Proteobacteria. A combination of metagenomic analysis and a culture-dependent approach helped us understand the relative abundance as well as potential nitrifiers and denitrifiers present in different samples. The recovered isolates could be used for in situ removal of nitrogenous compounds from contaminated wastewater.

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Data Availability

The Raw sequence reads have been deposited into the SRA under the accession PRJNA824944. Sequence reads from the Illumina sequencing are under the Biosample SUB170771 while the isolate sequences are under the Biosample SUB11316194 (Accession numbers ON227417-ON227434).

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Acknowledgements

James Murimi Wachira is grateful to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the University of Embu (UoEM) for their great support and contribution towards the entire research project.

Funding

Graduate Research Fellowship by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, National Research Fund, Kenya, [Grant number NRF/1/MMC/470,2018] and The Alexander von Humboldt Equipment Grant [Grant number Ref 3.4-8151/19060].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Embu, Embu, 6-60100, Kenya

    James M. Wachira, Denis Kiplimo & Romano Mwirichia

  2. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nairobi, 30772-00100, Kenya

    Moses Thuita

  3. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, PMB 5320, Ibadan, 200001, Oyo State, Nigeria

    Cargele Masso

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Contributions

JMW did the experiments, data collection and wrote the manuscript. DM assisted in data collection. MT and CM designed the experiments, guided sample collection, and proofread the manuscript. RM-guided data analysis, manuscript writing and proofreading. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Romano Mwirichia.

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284_2022_2950_MOESM1_ESM.png

Supplementary file1 (PNG 294 kb)—Map showing the study area and sample collection sites in the vicinity of Lake Victoria

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Wachira, J.M., Kiplimo, D., Thuita, M. et al. Community Structure of Nitrifying and Denitrifying Bacteria from Effluents Discharged into Lake Victoria, Kenya. Curr Microbiol 79, 252 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-022-02950-1

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