Identification of key microbial communities and intracellular metabolic pathways to response micro-aerobic environment for enhancing degradation of N, N-dimethylformamide in refractory membrane-making wastewater

Enhanced sludge hydrolysis in micro-aerobic environment with dissolved oxygen (DO) regulation could degrade stubborn refractory N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) in membrane-making wastewater. However, investigations on how micro-aerobic condition affects DMF conversion and microbial metabolism in biological system are still inadequate. Herein, the responses of microbial community to micro-aerobic environment, and the consequent variations of metabolic pathways in DMF degradation were unraveled. Results indicated that low concentration of DO (0.2-0.4 mg/L) could significantly enhance the ammonification rate (from 21.8 % to 52.8 %) and COD removal efficiency (from 65.2 % to 82 %) by breaking C-N and C--O bonds of amide group in macromolecular organics, which help it degraded into micromolecular organics. 16S rRNA and metagenomic analysis further revealed that low DO contents prompted the changes of microbial community structure. Specifically, toxicitytolerant fermentation bacteria (e.g. Desulfomicrobium and unclassified_c_ Deltaproteobacteria) gradually became the dominant species in micro-aerobic environment, showing positive connections with COD removal and ammonification functions. Additionally, functional genes analysis further revealed the intracellular metabolic pathways of DMF, where the upregulation of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation pathway was observed in micro-aerobic environment. Such regulation led to the massive synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and NADH, which are needful in oxidative demethylation process, and thus promoting the conversion from DMF to formamide, CH4 and NH3 in Methanolobus step-by-step. Therefore, this study provided vital insights into the responses of microbial community structure and DMF intracellular metabolic pathways to micro-aerobic environment, and profoundly discussed their contributions to the efficient treatment effect on membrane-making wastewater.