DNA and RNA-SIP reveal Nitrospira spp. as key drivers of nitrification in groundwater-fed biofilters

Nitrification, the oxidative process converting ammonia to nitrite and nitrate, is driven by microbes and plays a central role in the global nitrogen cycle. Our earlier metagenomics, amoA-amplicon, and amoA-qPCR based investigations of groundwater-fed biofilters indicated a consistently high abundance of comammox Nitrospira, and we hypothesized that these non-classical nitrifiers drive ammonia-N oxidation. Hence, we used DNA and RNA stable isotope probing (SIP) coupled with 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to identify the active members in the biofilter community when subject to a continuous supply of NH4+ or NO2- in the presence of 13C-HCO3- (labelled) or 12C-HCO3-(unlabelled). Allylthiourea (ATU) and sodium chlorate were added to inhibit autotrophic ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, respectively. Our results confirmed that lineage II Nitrospira dominated ammonium oxidation in the biofilter community. A total of 78 (8 in RNA-SIP and 70 in DNA-SIP) and 96 (25 in RNA-SIP and 71 in DNA-SIP) Nitrospira phylotypes (at 99% 16S rRNA sequence similarity) were identified as complete ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizing, respectively. We also detected significant HCO3- uptake by Acidobacteria subgroup10, Pedomicrobium, Rhizobacter, and Acidovorax under conditions that favoured ammonium oxidation. Canonical Nitrospira alone drove nitrite oxidation in the biofilter community, and activity of archaeal ammonia oxidizing taxa was not detected in the SIP fractions. This study provides the first in-situ evidence of ammonia oxidation by comammox Nitrospira in an ecologically relevant complex microbiome.