Interspecies distances between propionic acid degraders and methanogens in syntrophic consortia for optimal hydrogen transfer

A mixed culture from an anaerobic biowaste digester was enriched on propionate and used to investigate interspecies hydrogen transfer in dependence of spatial distances between propionate degraders and methanogens. From 20.3 mM propionate, 20.8 mM acetate and 15.5 mM methane were formed. Maximum specific propionate oxidation and methane formation rates were 49 and 23 mmol mg(-1) day(-1), respectively. Propionate oxidation was inhibited by only 20 mM acetate by about 50 %. Intermediate formate formation during inhibited methanogensis was observed. The spatial distribution and the biovolume fraction of propionate degraders and of methanogens in relation to the total population during aggregate formation were determined. Measurements of interbacterial distances were conducted with fluorescence in situ hybridization by application of group-specific 16S rRNA-targeted probes and 3D image analyses. With increasing incubation time, floc formation and growth up to 54 mu m were observed. Propionate degraders and methanogens were distributed randomly in the flocs. The methanogenic biovolume fraction was high at the beginning and remained constant over 42 days, whereas the fraction of propionate degraders increased with time during propionate feeding. Interbacterial distances between propionate degraders and methanogens decreased with time from 5.30 to 0.29 mu m, causing an increase of the maximum possible hydrogen flux from 1.1 to 10.3 nmol ml(-1) min(-1). The maximum possible hydrogen flux was always higher than the hydrogen formation and consumption rate, indicating that reducing the interspecies distance by aggregation is advantageous in complex ecosystems.