Changes in microbial communities during colonization of sewer systems

The aim of this study was to investigate the initial stages microbial biofilms development in sewer systems with a special focus on the interactions between sulfate-reducing bacteria and methanogenic archaea. Biological activities and phylogenetic community structure during the sewer colonisation were investigated using the combination of molecular techniques (DGGE, qPCR and massive parallel sequencing of 16S rRNA genes of target groups) and process data (sulfide and methane production). The work was carried out using a laboratory sewer pilot plant fed with wastewater that reproduced a real anaerobic pressured sewer. Microbial community composition was compared with biofilm from a real sewer to validate representativeness of the laboratory results.