Anoxic Biodegradation of Isosaccharinic Acids at Alkaline pH by Natural Microbial Communities

Pan, Chongle, Rout, Simon P, Charles, Christopher J, Doulgeris, Charalampos, McCarthy, Alan, Rooks, Dave, Loughnane, Paul, Laws, Andrew P and Humphreys, Paul N (2015) Anoxic Biodegradation of Isosaccharinic Acids at Alkaline pH by Natural Microbial Communities. PLoS ONE, 10 (9). e0137682-.

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Abstract

One design concept for the long-term management of the UK’s intermediate level radioactive wastes (ILW) is disposal to a cementitious geological disposal facility (GDF). Under the alkaline (10.013.0) anoxic conditions expected within a GDF, cellulosic wastes will undergo chemical hydrolysis. The resulting cellulose degradation products (CDP) are dominated by α- and β-isosaccharinic acids (ISA), which present an organic carbon source that may enable subsequent microbial colonisation of a GDF. Microcosms established from neutral, near-surface sediments demonstrated complete ISA degradation under methanogenic conditions up to pH 10.0. Degradation decreased as pH increased, with β-ISA fermentation more heavily influenced than α-ISA. This reduction in degradation rate was accompanied by a shift in microbial population away from organisms related to Clostridium sporosphaeroides to a more diverse Clostridial community. The increase in pH to 10.0 saw an increase in detection of Alcaligenes aquatilis and a dominance of hydrogenotrophic methanogens within the Archaeal population. Methane was generated up to pH 10.0 with acetate accumulation at higher pH values reflecting a reduced detection of acetoclastic methanogens. An increase in pH to 11.0 resulted in the accumulation of ISA, the absence of methanogenesis and the loss of biomass from the system. This study is the first to demonstrate methanogenesis from ISA by near surface microbial communities not previously exposed to these compounds up to and including pH 10.0.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Clostridium, Archaea, Sugar Acids, Methane, RNA, Bacterial, Radioactive Waste, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Waste Management, Phylogeny, Gene Library, Hydrogen-Ion Concentration, Biodegradation, Environmental
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	16 Oct 2015 13:45
Last Modified:	15 Dec 2022 11:29
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0137682
Publisher's Statement :	© 2015 Rout et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/2032179