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<p>Nitritation, the conversion of ammonia to nitrite without further oxidation, offers an energy-efficient route for nitrogen removal, but its application is limited by the difficulty of selectively suppressing nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). The underlying biological mechanisms that enable such suppression remain poorly understood. Here we show that quorum sensing (QS), a cell–cell communication system, enables nitritation by regulating NOB behaviour. Using multi-omics and single-cell Raman spectroscopy, we demonstrate that QS signalling induces the overexpression of <i>nirB</i> in the dominant NOB genus <i>Nitrospira</i>, triggering an altruistic nitrite reduction causing self-inactivation. In contrast, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria refrain from this altruistic metabolism, gaining a decisive competitive advantage and directing nitrification flux towards nitritation. QS manipulation confirms that active QS is required to maintain nitritation, and single-cell analysis reveals that QS drives a stress-tolerant <i>Nitrospira</i> cell into a susceptible state, markedly reducing survival. These findings uncover an unknown social behaviour in the nitrifier community and offer new insights for nitritation stabilization.</p>

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Quorum sensing-driven metabolic altruism of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria fuels nitritation

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月29日

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  • Xuliang Zhuang,
  • Xu Wang,
  • Cancan Jiang,
  • Danhua Wang,
  • Shengjun Xu,
  • Lei Wang,
  • Shanghua Wu,
  • Ye Deng,
  • Guibing Zhu,
  • Aamer Ali Shah,
  • Jian Xu

摘要

Nitritation, the conversion of ammonia to nitrite without further oxidation, offers an energy-efficient route for nitrogen removal, but its application is limited by the difficulty of selectively suppressing nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). The underlying biological mechanisms that enable such suppression remain poorly understood. Here we show that quorum sensing (QS), a cell–cell communication system, enables nitritation by regulating NOB behaviour. Using multi-omics and single-cell Raman spectroscopy, we demonstrate that QS signalling induces the overexpression of nirB in the dominant NOB genus Nitrospira, triggering an altruistic nitrite reduction causing self-inactivation. In contrast, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria refrain from this altruistic metabolism, gaining a decisive competitive advantage and directing nitrification flux towards nitritation. QS manipulation confirms that active QS is required to maintain nitritation, and single-cell analysis reveals that QS drives a stress-tolerant Nitrospira cell into a susceptible state, markedly reducing survival. These findings uncover an unknown social behaviour in the nitrifier community and offer new insights for nitritation stabilization.