Takako WATANABE

Estimate a function of uncultivated microbes residing in anaerobic sludge.

Hiroyuki IMACHI, Akiyoshi OHASHI, Hideki HARADA

Knowledge of microbial diversity has expanded dramatically owing to the sequencing of ribosomal RNA genes cloned from
environmental DNA. Currently, less than half of identifiable major lineages, or phyla, within the domain Bacteria have cultivated representatives. Evidence from field studies indicates that many of the uncultivated phyla are found in diverse habitats like anaerobic sludge. To isolate and estimate a function of these uncultivated microbes is very important to figure out a degradation and circulation of substance. In this study, we characterized the microbial communities of thermophilic
granular sludges, which had been treating sucrose/propionate/acetate-based artificial wastewater. 16S rRNA gene clone libraries were constracted by PCR with a Bacteria-specific primer set, and full sequencing of the clonal 16S rRNAs was conducted for phylogenetic analysis. As a result, in the thermophilic clone library, ther Firmicutes and the Chloroflexi were detected. In contrast, uncultured bacteria phylum; BA024, OP8 and EM3 were also detected. We focused BA024 that frequently-detected of them all, and designed BA024-specific DNA probe.