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Microbial diversity in hypersaline wastewater: the example of tanneries

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Abstract

In contrast to conventional wastewater treatment plants and saline environments, little is known regarding the microbial diversity of hypersaline wastewater. In this study, the microbial communities of a hypersaline tannery effluent, and those of three treatment systems operating with the tannery effluent, were investigated using 16S rDNA phylogenetic markers. The comparative analysis of 377 bacterial sequences revealed the high diversity of this type of hypersaline environment, clustering within 193 phylotypes (≥ 97% similarity) and covering 14 of the 52 divisions of the bacterial domain, i.e. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Chlorobi, Planctomycetes, Spirochaetes, Synergistes, Chloroflexi, Thermotogae, Verrucomicrobia, OP3, OP11 and TM7. Most of the phylotypes were related to halophilic and pollutant-degrading bacteria. Using statistical analysis, the diversity of this type of environment was compared to that of other environmental samples selected on the basis of their salinity, oxygen content and organic load.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Indo-French Cell for Bioprocesses on Environment (IFCBE) based on cooperation between the Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Chennai (India) and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, INRA). The authors would like to thank Dr. P. Dabert and Ms. V. Bru for their assistance during the study and Dr. M. Moletta for providing data regarding anaerobic sludge diversity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Avenue des Etangs, 11100, Narbonne, France

    O. Lefebvre, R. Moletta & J. J. Godon

  2. Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai, 600025, India

    O. Lefebvre, N. Vasudevan & K. Thanasekaran

Authors
  1. O. Lefebvre
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  2. N. Vasudevan
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  3. K. Thanasekaran
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  4. R. Moletta
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  5. J. J. Godon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to O. Lefebvre.

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Communicated by K. Horikoshi

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Lefebvre, O., Vasudevan, N., Thanasekaran, K. et al. Microbial diversity in hypersaline wastewater: the example of tanneries. Extremophiles 10, 505–513 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-006-0524-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-006-0524-1

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