J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. (2017), 27(2), 321–334 https://doi.org/10.4014/jmb.1605.05083 Research Article Review jmb Biphasic Study to Characterize Agricultural Biogas Plants by High- Throughput 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon Sequencing and Microscopic Analysis Irena Maus1, Yong Sung Kim2, Daniel Wibberg1, Yvonne Stolze1, Sandra Off2, Sebastian Antonczyk2, Alfred Pühler1, Paul Scherer2†, and Andreas Schlüter1†* 1Bielefeld University, Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Genome Research and Systems Biology, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany 2Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), Faculty Life Sciences / Research Center “Biomass Utilization Hamburg”, Laboratory for Applied Microbiology, 21033 Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany Received: May 31, 2016 Revised: September 28, 2016 Process surveillance within agricultural biogas plants (BGPs) was concurrently studied by high- Accepted: October 9, 2016 throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and an optimized quantitative microscopic fingerprinting (QMF) technique. In contrast to 16S rRNA gene amplicons, digitalized microscopy is a rapid and cost-effective method that facilitates enumeration and morphological First published online differentiation of the most significant groups of methanogens regarding their shape and October 25, 2016 characteristic autofluorescent factor 420. Moreover, the fluorescence signal mirrors cell vitality. *Corresponding author In this study, four different BGPs were investigated. The results indicated stable process Phone: +49-521-106-8757; performance in the mesophilic BGPs and in the thermophilic reactor. Bacterial subcommunity Fax: +49-521-106-89041; characterization revealed significant differences between the four BGPs. Most remarkably, the E-mail:
[email protected] bielefeld.de genera Defluviitoga and Halocella dominated the thermophilic bacterial subcommunity, whereas members of another taxon, Syntrophaceticus, were found to be abundant in the mesophilic BGP.