Use of PCR-DGGE Based Molecular Methods to Analyse Microbial Community Diversity and Stability during the Thermophilic Stages of an ATAD Wastewater Sludge Treatment Process as an Aid to Performance Monitoring

Table 4

Comparison of range-weighted richness (Rr) for bacterial diversity at different stages of ATAD treatment obtained by various primer sets in this study and values reported in other studies from different industrial and native ecosystems. Rr was calculated for each DGGE profile obtained as described in Section 2. The highest Rr values are shown in bold.

Fingerprint type	Range-weighted richness, Rr
	16S rDNA		rpoB	Reference
	V3–V5 region	V6–V8 region
ATAD inlet	80.2	50.4	56.40	This study
ATAD Reactor 1A (after 4 hours)	50	1.53	36.56	This study
ATAD Reactor 1A (after 8 hours)	40.5	12.67	4.05	This study
ATAD Reactor 1A (after 16 hours)	6.61	12.67	4.05	This study
Reactor 2A (after 4 hours)	140	15.9	7.2	This study
Reactor 2A (after 23 hours)	113.9	62.5	9.1	This study
Biosolids (after post treatment)	104.4	12.1	13.6	This study
Pharmaceutical activated sludge	25	—	—	[21]
Stable nitrifying reactor	145			[21]
Municipal activated sludge	57	—	—	[21]
Garden soil	220	—	—	[21]
Legume rhizosphere	57	—	—	[21]
Arctic sea ice	26	—	—	[21]