RESEARCH ARTICLE Nitrosomonas Nm143-like ammonia oxidizers and Nitrospira marina -like nitrite oxidizers dominate the nitri¢er community in a marine aquaculture bio¢lm Barbel¨ U. Foesel1,2, Armin Gieseke3, Carsten Schwermer3, Peter Stief3, Liat Koch4, Eddie Cytryn4,5, Jose´ R. de la Torre´ 6, Jaap van Rijn5, Dror Minz4, Harold L. Drake2 & Andreas Schramm1,2 1Department of Biological Sciences, Microbiology, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark; 2Department of Ecological Microbiology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany; 3Microsensor Group, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany; 4The Volcani Center, Institute for Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, ARO, Bet-Dagan, Israel; 5Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel; and 6Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Correspondence: Andreas Schramm, Abstract Department of Biological Sciences, Microbiology, University of Aarhus, Ny Zero-discharge marine aquaculture systems are an environmentally friendly Munkegade, Building 1540, DK-8000, alternative to conventional aquaculture. In these systems, water is purified and Aarhus C, Denmark. Tel.: 145 8942 3248; recycled via microbial biofilters. Here, quantitative data on nitrifier community fax: 145 8942 2722; structure of a trickling filter biofilm associated with a recirculating marine e-mail:
[email protected] aquaculture system are presented. Repeated rounds of the full-cycle rRNA approach were necessary to optimize DNA extraction and the probe set for FISH Present address: Barbel¨ U. Foesel, Bereich to obtain a reliable and comprehensive picture of the ammonia-oxidizing Mikrobiologie, Department Biologie I Ludwig- community. Analysis of the ammonia monooxygenase gene (amoA) confirmed Maximilians-Universitat¨ Munchen, ¨ Germany.