NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF LIPOQUINONE PATTERNS IN MONITORING BACTERIAL COMMUNITY DYNAMICS IN WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Abstract

The quinone composition of 10 sludge samples consisting of plant-derived activated sludges, laboratory activated sludges, and photosynthetic sludges was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, and mass spectrometry. The quinone profiles of these sludges showed taxonomic divergence among the sludge bacterial communities. The information could be enhanced by numerical analysis of the profiles using the ‘overlap’ coefficient and mean linkage algorithm. This analytical system provided quantitative information about the population shift in the indigenous bacterial flora of sludge as affected by physico-chemical or biological stress. The quinone profile method with numerical analysis is quite useful for investigating the bacterial community dynamics over time and space, without the necessity of culturing.