Enrichment and activity of methanotrophic microorganisms from municipal wastewater sludge.

In this study, methanotrophic microorganisms were enriched from a municipal wastewater sludge taken from an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket reactor. The enrichment was performed in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with an autotrophic medium containing nitrite and nitrate. The microbial community composition of the inoculum and of the enrichment culture after 100 days of SBR operation was investigated and compared with the help of data obtained from 454 pyrosequencing analyses.