Abundance and Population Structure of Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria That Inhabit Canal Sediments Receiving Effluents from Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

Abstract
A polyphasic, culture-independent study was conducted to investigate the abundance and population structure of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in canal sediments receiving wastewater discharge. The abundance of AOB ranged from 0.2 to 1.9% and 1.6 to 5.7% of the total bacterial fraction by real-time PCR and immunofluorescence staining, respectively. Clone analysis and restriction endonuclease analysis revealed that the AOB communities influenced by the wastewater discharge were dominated by Nitrosomonas , were similar to each other, and were less diverse than the communities outside of the immediate discharge zone.

This publication has 40 references indexed in Scilit: