ERC Project – GREENT

ERC

Group leader

Microbial Physiology Research Group

Dr. Boran Kartal

MPI for Marine Microbiology
Celsiusstr. 1
D-28359 Bremen
Germany

Room: 

3126

Phone: 

+49 421 2028-6450

Dr. Boran Kartal

Scientists

Microbial Physiology Research Group

Dr. Bram Vekeman

MPI for Marine Microbiology
Celsiusstr. 1
D-28359 Bremen
Germany

Phone: 

+49 421 2028-6380

Dr. Bram Vekeman

Microbial Physiology Research Group

Paloma Garrido Amador

MPI for Marine Microbiology
Celsiusstr. 1
D-28359 Bremen
Germany

Room: 

3137

Phone: 

+49 421 2028-6530

Paloma Garrido Amador

Project Description

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation through Advanced Nitrogen Removal Technology - GREENT

Human activities have severe impacts on the biological carbon and nitrogen cycles. The most important consequences of these are global warming and water pollution. Wastewater treatment technology, in particular nitrogen removal systems, improved considerably in the last decade. The application of anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (anammox) bacteria in oxygen-limited granules has the potential to turn wastewater treatment plants into energy-efficient systems with minimal greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. Recently, microorganisms that couple the anaerobic oxidation of methane to denitrification were discovered. An innovative integration of these microorganisms into partial nitritation-anammox systems for wastewater treatment offers an elegant and efficient solution to combat greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment plants. The aim of the GREENT project is to determine nitrous oxide emissions from partial nitritation-anammox bioreactors and the parameters that govern these emissions, and to investigate the responsible pathways in molecular detail. Furthermore, I will explore the feasibility of an innovative bioreactor, which will remove ammonium and methane simultaneously through anammox and anaerobic methane-oxidizing microorganisms. This approach will turn the otherwise harmful methane into a resource for efficient nitrogen removal. These fundamental insights and technological advances will be achieved by a complimentary array of state-of-the-art methodology such as continuous culturing, stable isotope tracing and a combination of -omics methods together with physiological experiments and detailed measurements at full-scale installations. The results of this proposal will be of paramount importance for the wastewater treatment sector, but also indispensable for mathematical modelling, life cycle assessment and understanding the ecophysiology of the involved microorganisms.

cultures

Press Releases

Popularized Publications

Publications

2021 Learning from microorganisms: using new insights in microbial physiology for sustainable nitrogen management
P. Garrido-Amador, M. Kniaziuk, B. Vekeman B. Kartal
Current Opinion in Biotechnology, vol. 67, pp. 42 – 48. link to paper
2020 Multiheme hydroxylamine oxidoreductases produce NO during ammonia oxidation in methanotrophs
W. Versantvoort, A. Pol, M.S.M. Jetten, L. van Niftrik, J. Reimann, B. Kartal, H. J. M. op den Camp
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 117, no. 39, pp. 24459 – 24463. link to paper
  Diversity, enrichment, and genomic potential of anaerobic methane- and ammonium-oxidizing microorganisms from a brewery wastewater treatment plant
K. Stultiens, M. A. H. J. van Kessel, J. Frank, P. Fischer, C. Pelzer, T. A. van Alen, B. Kartal, H. J. M. op den Camp, M.S. M. Jetten
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, vol. 104, no. 16, pp. 7201 – 7212. link to paper
2019 Discovery of a functional, contracted heme-binding motif within a multiheme cytochrome
C. Ferousi, S. Lindhoud, F. Baymann, E. R. Hester, J. Reimann, B. Kartal
Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 294, no. 45, pp. 16953-16965 link to paper
  A 192-heme electron transfer network in the hydrazine dehydrogenase complex
M. Akram, A. Dietl, U. Mersdorf, S. Prinz, W. Maalcke, J. Keltjens, C. Ferousi, De Almeida, N.M., J. Reimann, B. Kartal, M.S.M. Jetten, K. Parey, T.R.M. Barends
Science Advances, vol. 5, no. 4 link to paper
  A 60-heme reductase complex from an anammox bacterium shows an extended electron transfer pathway
A. Dietl, W.J. Maalcke, C. Ferousi, M.S.M. Jetten, B. Kartal, T.R.M. Barends
Acta Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology, vol. 75, no. 3, pp. 333–341. link to paper
  Arcobacter peruensis sp.nov., a chemolithoheterotroph isolated from sulfide and organic rich coastal waters off Peru
C.M. Call­beck, C. Pel­zer, G. La­vik, T.G. Fer­de­l­mann, J.S. Graf, B. Vekeman, H. Schunck, S. Litt­mann, B.M. Fuchs, P.F. Hach, T. Kal­ve­la­ge, R.A. Schmitz, M.M.M .Kuy­pers
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 85, issue. 24 link to paper
  Methyloparacoccus
B. Vekeman
Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria, link to paper
  A nitric oxide-binding heterodimeric cytochrome c complex from the anammox bacterium Kuenenia stuttgartiensis binds to hydrazine synthase
M. Akram, J. Reimann, A. Dietl, A. Menzel, W. Versantvoort, B. Kartal, M.S.M. Jetten, T.R.M. Barends
Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 294, no. 45, pp. 16712–16728. link to paper
  Complexome analysis of the nitrite-dependent methanotroph Methylomirabilis lanthanidiphila
W. Versantvoort, S. Guerrero-Castillo, H.J.C.T. Wessels, van Niftrik, L., M.S.M. Jetten, U. Brandt, J. Reimann, B. Kartal
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Bioenergetics, vol. 1860, no. 9, pp. 734–744. link to paper
  Interactions between anaerobic ammonium- and methane-oxidizing microorganisms in a laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor
K. Stultiens, S.G. Cruz, van Kessel, M.A.H.J., M.S.M. Jetten, B. Kartal, Op den Camp, H.J.M.
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, vol. 103, no. 16, pp. 6783–6795. link to paper
  Interactions of anaerobic ammonium oxidizers and sulfide-oxidizing bacteria in a substrate-limited model system mimicking the marine environment
L. Russ, van Alen, T.A., M.S.M. Jetten, Op den Camp, H.J.M., B. Kartal
FEMS microbiology ecology, vol. 95, no. 9. link to paper
  Key physiology of a nitrite-dependent methane-oxidizing enrichment culture
S. Guerrero-Cruz, K. Stultiens, van Kessel, M.A.H.J., W. Versantvoort, M.S. Jetten, den Camp, H.J.M.O., B. Kartal
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 85, no. 8. link to paper
  Nitric oxide-dependent anaerobic ammonium oxidation
Z. Hu, H.J.C.T. Wessels, van Alen, T., M.S.M. Jetten, B. Kartal
Nature Communications, vol. 10, no. 1 link to paper
2018 Community composition and ultrastructure of a nitrate-dependent anaerobic methane-oxidizing enrichment culture
L. Gambelli, S. Guerrero-Cruz, R.J. Mesman, G. Cremers, M.S.M. Jetten, Op den Camp, H.J.M., B. Kartal, C. Lueke, van Niftrik, L.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 84, no. 3. link to paper
  Comparative genomics of Candidatus Methylomirabilis species and description of Ca. Methylomirabilis lanthanidiphila
W. Versantvoort, S. Guerrero-Cruz, D.R. Speth, J. Frank, L. Gambelli, G. Cremers, van Alen, T., M.S.M. Jetten, B. Kartal, Op den Camp, H.J.M., J. Reimann
Frontiers in Microbiology, vol. 9, link to paper
  Current perspectives on the application of N-damo and anammox in wastewater treatment
van Kessel, M.A., K. Stultiens, M.F. Slegers, Guerrero Cruz, S., M.S. Jetten, B. Kartal, Op den Camp, H.J.
Current Opinion in Biotechnology, vol. 50, pp. 222–227. link to paper
  The microbial nitrogen-cycling network
M.M.M. Kuypers, H.K. Marchant, B. Kartal
Nature Reviews Microbiology, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 263–276. free to view link, link to paper
2017 Iron assimilation and utilization in anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria
C. Ferousi, S. Lindhoud, F. Baymann, B. Kartal, M.S. Jetten, J. Reimann
Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, vol. 37, pp. 129–136. link to paper
2016 Anammox biochemistry: a tale of heme c proteins
B. Kartal, J.T. Keltjens
Trends in Biochemical Sciences, vol. 41, no. 12, pp. 998–1011. link to paper
  Archaea catalyze iron-dependent anaerobic oxidation of methane
K.F. Ettwig, B. Zhu, D. Speth, J.T. Keltjens, M.S.M. Jetten, B. Kartal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 113, no. 45, pp. 12792–12796. link to paper
  Characterization of anammox hydrazine dehydrogenase, a key N2-producing enzyme in the global nitrogen cycle
W.J. Maalcke, J. Reimann, De Vries, S., J.N. Butt, A. Dietl, N. Kip, U. Mersdorf, T.R.M. Barends, M.S.M. Jetten, J.T. Keltjens, B. Kartal
Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 291, no. 33, pp. 17077–17092. link to paper
  Membrane-bound electron transport systems of an anammox bacterium: A complexome analysis
de Almeida, N.M., H.J.C.T. Wessels, de Graaf, R.M., C. Ferousi, M.S.M. Jetten, J.T. Keltjens, B. Kartal
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Bioenergetics, vol. 1857, no. 10, pp. 1694–1704. link to paper
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