Decoding the microbial connectivity of livestock manure and anaerobic digestion (biogas) microbiomes

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Barbara Amon; Dr. Christiane Herrmann; Dr. Michael Lebuhn; Dr. Andreas Schlüter; Professor Dr. Alexander Sczyrba; Dr. Susanne Theuerl
• Subject Area: Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology
• Term: from 2021 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 458892005

In current times, the development of new concepts for bioeconomic production systems is faced with major challenges inter alia the discovery of sustainable management measures to reduce methane emissions from animal husbandry, particularly manure storage as well as to enhance the methane yield from anaerobic digestion systems to provide base load power and a flexible demand-driven energy supply. Both processes are mediated by hundreds to thousands of different microbial taxa which are complexly interconnected with each other. Therefore, the objective of this project is to decode the connectivity of microbiomes with special emphasis at the discovery of indicative microbial associations related either to the reduction of methane emissions from manure storage or an enhanced methane yield in anaerobic digestion systems for biogas production. Accompanying ongoing projects, additional 300 metagenome datasets based on Illumina and Nanopore sequencing will be conducted. The obtained datasets will be used to comprehensively decipher the microbial diversity, especially by determining metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs). The connectivity of the identified MAGs will be investigated by co-occurrence network analyses which allow the estimation of positive or negative interactions and beyond that the discovery of indicative microbial taxa and their associations. This information can be used to assess the microbial community assemblies and microbiome connectivities in relation to specific environmental conditions within the manure storage and anaerobic digestion systems and to integrate information about the microbiome into process and system modelling concepts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants