Author(s)

Pilar Garcia-Jimenez^1*, Marina Carrasco-Acosta¹, Carlos Enrique Payá¹, Irina Alemán López¹, Juana Rosa Betancort Rodríguez², José Alberto Herrera Melián³

¹Department of Biology, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas, Spain.
²Department of Water, Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias, Playa de Pozo Izquierdo, Las Palmas, Spain.
³Department of Chemistry, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas, Spain.

Biofouling is an important problem for reverse osmosis (RO) membrane manufacturers. Bacteria are mainly involved in generating fouling and obturating RO membranes. Insights into biofilm bacteria composition could help prevent biofouling, reduce the cost of using RO-fouling membranes and guarantee safe water. Culture-dependent and independent techniques were then performed in order to identify bacteria associated with RO membranes. Bacteria cultures described the presence of six pure colonies, four of which were identified through API testing. Based on 16s rRNA gene analysis, a predominant bacterium was identified and annotated as Sphingomonas sp. The 16s rRNA gene clone library, on the other hand, showed that the bacterium, Pseudomonas marincola, accounted for nearly 30% of the clone library, while the rest of bacteria were chimeras (62%) and non-representative species (3%). In conclusion, culture-dependent and independent approaches showed that two dominant bacteria were commonly observed in RO desalination membranes.

Biofouling, Bacteria, 16s rRNA, Reverse Osmosis Membrane, Pseudomonas sp. , Sphingomonas sp.

Garcia-Jimenez, P. , Carrasco-Acosta, M. , Payá, C. , López, I. , Rodríguez, J. and Melián, J. (2019) Composition and Molecular Identification of Bacterial Community in Seawater Desalination Plants. Advances in Microbiology, 9, 863-876. doi: 10.4236/aim.2019.910053.