POWRE: Use of Fluorescent Oligonucleotide Probes & Other Advanced Techniques to Characterize Population Distribution of Nitrifying Bacteria

9753086 Figueroa硝化细菌的活性种群分布很难使用传统的培养技术如最可能数和选择性平板法进行研究。 这部分是因为硝化细菌生长非常缓慢-在最佳条件下每八小时复制一次，与E。每20分钟复制一次。 培养技术还需要破坏生物膜结构和损失空间分布信息。 一种可以应用于完整生物膜样品的相对较新的微生物学技术是荧光原位杂交（FISH）。 FISH在全规模废水处理系统中的应用是有限的。 这可以产生与性能相关的重要信息，然后用于量化过程建模和优化的活动群体。 其他技术，如共聚焦显微镜和微探针可能适用于完整的生物膜样品收集全规模滴滤器，并可能提供额外的信息过程控制。 主要的研究目标是研究应用相对较新的微生物和生物膜技术来表征完整的生物膜样品，并确定这些信息是否可以用于改善工艺建模和优化。 次要目标是开发新的技能和合作关系，以增加竞争力，使用这些新技术来量化表型及其分布在全面的生物膜过程。 ***

9753086 Figueroa The active population distribution of nitrifying bacteria is difficult to study using traditional cultivation techniques such as most probable number and selective plating. This is partially because nitrifying bacteria grow very slowly - replicating once every eight hours under optimal conditions compared to E. coli which replicates once every twenty minutes. Culturing techniques also require the disruption of the biofilm structure and a loss of spatial distribution information. One relatively new microbiological technique that can be applied to an intact biofilm sample is Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization (FISH). The application of FISH to full-scale wastewater treatment systems is limited. This could yield important information that can be correlated with performance and then used to quantify the active population for process modeling and optimization. Other techniques such as confocal microscopy and microprobes may be applicable to intact biofilm samples collected from full-scale trickling filters and may provide additional information for process control. The main research objective is to investigate the application of relatively new microbiological and biofilm techniques to characterize intact biofilm samples and determine whether this information can be used to improve process modeling and optimization. Secondary objectives are to develop new skills and collaborative relationships to increase competitiveness for the use of these novel techniques to quantify phenotypes and their distribution in full-scale biofilm processes. ***