Sphaerotilus natans

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sphaerotilus natans
Submerged S. natans colonies with floating insect in the lower right for scale. Beige color shown is typical of aerated sewage treatment plants, but color may vary through grey toward black downstream of septic sewage or into brighter orange from precipitated
ferric oxide
.
Scientific classification
Domain:
Bacteria
Phylum:
Pseudomonadota
Class:
Betaproteobacteria
Order:
Burkholderiales
Family:
Comamonadaceae
Genus:
Sphaerotilus

Kützing 1833
Species:
S. natans
Binomial name
Sphaerotilus natans
Kützing 1833

Sphaerotilus natans is an aquatic periphyton organism associated with polluted water. It forms colonies commonly known as "sewage fungus", but later identified as tightly sheathed filamentous bacteria.[1]

Morphology

Straight or smoothly curved filaments 1.5 µm in diameter and 100 to more than 500 µm in length are formed by rod-shaped cells with clear

poly- beta -hydroxybutyrate as internal globules making up 30 to 40% of the dry weight of a colony.[3] Gram and Neisser staining reactions are negative.[5]

Habitat

S. natans requires dissolved simple

cobalamin or methionine as a trace nutrient.[3] S. natans filaments can aid development of a periphyton biofilm trapping suspended particles and stabilizing colonies of other organisms including Klebsiella and Pseudomonas.[2]

S. natans is described as a key taxon in sewage fungus, a polymicrobial biofilm that proliferates in rivers with a high organic loading[6][7][8] such as from sewage discharges, industrial effluents or runoff from airport de-icing.[9] It is also implicated in active sludge bulking[10]

Significance

Sphaerotilus natans is often associated with a buoyant floc (or "bulking sludge") causing poor solids separation in activated sludge clarifiers of secondary sewage treatment.[4] Metal surfaces covered with S. natans may experience accelerated corrosion if the slime creates a barrier causing differential oxygen concentrations.[11] S. natans slimes may reduce quality of paper produced by paper mills using recycled water streams.[2]

References

  1. ^ Fair, Geyer & Okun p.32-31
  2. ^
    PMID 9872774
    .
  3. ^
    PMID 353479
    .
  4. ^ a b Hammer p.55
  5. ^ a b "Sphaerotilus natans". Environmental Business Specialists LLC. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  6. ISSN 1470-160X
    .
  7. ISSN 0043-1354
    .
  8. ISSN 1464-7931
    .
  9. doi:10.2166/nh.2023.114
    – via IWA Publishing.
  10. ISSN 0043-1303
    .
  11. ^ Betz pp.288&289

Further reading

  • Betz Laboratories Handbook of Industrial Water Conditioning (7th Edition) Betz Laboratories (1976)
  • Fair, Gordon Maskew, Geyer, John Charles & Okun, Daniel Alexander Water and Wastewater Engineering (Volume 2) John Wiley & Sons (1968)
  • Hammer, Mark J. Water and Waste-Water Technology John Wiley & Sons (1975)
    ISBN 0-471-34726-4

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sphaerotilus_natans&oldid=1219002711"