Authors: Davide Sanguineti, Alexandros Chatzis, Guido Zampieri, Maria Gaspari, Panagiotis G. Kougias, Stefano Campanaro, Laura Treu

This study applies genome-resolved metagenomics combined with condition-specific metabolic models to follow a thermophilic trickle bed reactor during stepwise reductions in gas retention time. Abrupt shortening provoked a reproducible community transition where putative homoacetogenic bacteria displaced minor bacteria and CO2 purity fell from ~98% to <51%. Model-driven flux balance analysis identified actionable strategies including methanol addition and selection of specific amino acids to stabilize high-rate biological methanation.

Read the full article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385894725167574