Syntrophic fatty-acid conversions and their role in anoxic ecosystems

Summary

In Anaerobic digestion (AD) systems organic waste is decomposed to biogas for energy recovery by the activity of various microorganisms. The final steps of the process, acetogenesis and subsequent methanogenesis, are performed by organisms in syntrophic relationships, obligatory and mutualistic types of symbiosis in which the microorganisms depend on each other for energetic reasons. Although this syntrophic metabolism is essential to maintain an efficient AD system, studies investigating the microbial physiology are limited due to a lack in isolated and enrichment cultures. This thesis explores the energetics, physiology, and genomics underlying syntrophic relationships in AD systems using both cultivation and omics approaches.