INVESTIGATION OF ANAEROBIC MICROBES POTENCIALLY CONTRIBUTING TO OCTADECANE DEGRADATION IN METHANE FERMENTATION PROCESS

Abstract

 To clarify the microoganisms potentially contributing to anaerobic degradation of octadecane, a comparative analysis of the microbial community structure was performed.The enrichment cultures of methanogenic microbial communities were constructed with two completely mixed reactors using the Niitsu River bottom sediment as a seeding source, and the prokaryotic community was identified. As a result of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing analysis of the sludge in the reactor on day 92 when the reactor supplying octadecane reached stationary state, the bacteria belonging to family Rikenellaceae (Blvii 28), genus Bacteroides and genus Kosmotoga were detected more frequently compared to the reactor that did not supply octadecane. These results indicate that these bacterial species are likely to be potentially contributing to the anaerobic degradation of octadecane in the reactor.