fmicb-07-01033 June 30, 2016 Time: 16:42 # 1 ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 04 July 2016 doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01033 “Candidatus Propionivibrio aalborgensis”: A Novel Glycogen Accumulating Organism Abundant in Full-Scale Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal Plants Mads Albertsen1†, Simon J. McIlroy1†, Mikkel Stokholm-Bjerregaard1,2, Søren M. Karst1 and Per H. Nielsen1* 1 Center for Microbial Communities, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, 2 Edited by: Krüger A/S, Aalborg, Denmark Gene W. Tyson, University of Queensland, Australia Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is widely used to remove phosphorus Reviewed by: from wastewater. The process relies on polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) Katherine McMahon, University of Wisconsin–Madison, that are able to take up phosphorus in excess of what is needed for growth, USA whereby phosphorus can be removed from the wastewater by wasting the biomass. Connor Tobias Skennerton, California Institute of Technology, USA However, glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) may reduce the EBPR efficiency *Correspondence: as they compete for substrates with PAOs, but do not store excessive amounts of Per H. Nielsen polyphosphate. PAOs and GAOs are thought to be phylogenetically unrelated, with
[email protected] the model PAO being the betaproteobacterial “Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis” www.bio.aau.dk (Accumulibacter) and the model GAO being the gammaproteobacterial “Candidatus †These authors have contributed equally to this work. Competibacter phosphatis”. Here, we report the discovery of a GAO from the genus Propionivibrio, which is closely related to Accumulibacter. Propionivibrio sp. Specialty section: This article was submitted to are targeted by the canonical fluorescence in situ hybridization probes used to target Microbial Physiology and Metabolism, Accumulibacter (PAOmix), but do not store excessive amounts of polyphosphate in a section of the journal situ.