Evolution and resistance of a microbial community exposed to Pb(II) wastewater

This study investigated the treatment performance of activated sludge on Pb(II)-containing wastewater, including contaminant removal efficiency, extracellular polymeric substances, pbrT gene content and the microbial community. The average removal efficiencies of ammonia nitrogen, chemical oxygen demand, total phosphorus, total nitrogen and Pb(II) were 40% ± 4%, 91% ± 3%, 95% ± 3%, 51% ± 5% and 92% ± 9% during the stable operation stage, respectively. Moreover, the extracellular polymeric substance -protein contents increased significantly from day 0 to day 60 (p