Effectiveness of a full-scale horizontal slow sand filter for controlling phytopathogens in recirculating hydroponics: From microbial isolation to full microbiome assessment

The Science of the Total Environment
Francesc X Prenafeta-BoldúOriol Marfà

Abstract

The microbial disinfestation efficiency of an innovative horizontal-flow slow sand filter (HSSF) for treating nutrient solution spent from an experimental closed-loop nursery was evaluated by means of a combination of culture-dependent and independent molecular techniques. A dense inoculum of the fungal plant pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici was applied in the fertigation system (106 cells per mL). Indigenous and introduced populations of eubacteria and fungi were assessed in the nutrient solution, the HSSF influent/effluent, and a sand bed transect by isolation on selective media, as well as by quantitative qPCR and next-generation sequencing (NGS) on target ribosomal genes. The HSSF effectively reduced viable Fusarium propagules and fungal gene content with an efficiency consistently above 99.9% (5 orders of magnitude down). On the other hand, Fusarium cells accumulated in the sand bed, indicating that physical entrapment was the main removal mechanism. The viability of retained Fusarium cells tended to decrease in time, so that treatment efficiency might be enhanced by antagonistic species from the genera Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and Trichoderma, also identified in the sand bed. Indigenous bacterial populations fr...Continue Reading

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