[1] S. wagneri and its genus share only about 85% similarity with other members in its evolutionary line, which suggests that it is distantly related to other anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (anammox) bacteria.
[1] Markus Schmid from the Jetten lab first discovered S. wagneri in a landfill leachate treatment plant located in Pitsea, UK on August 1, 2001.
[1] Therefore, the researchers used 16S rRNA (ribosomal RNA) gene analysis on the biofilm of wastewater samples to detect the presence of these bacteria.
[1][3] During the anammox process, ammonium is oxidized using nitrite as an electron acceptor and forms dinitrogen gas as a product.
[1] In addition, S. wagneri uses nitrite as an electron donor to fix carbon dioxide and forms nitrate as a byproduct.
[4] These results suggest that ammonia and nitrite is used in equal amounts to make 29N2, and denitrification concurrently occurs with anammox metabolism.
[4] Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences was performed using the GENETYX program, and the alignments and phylogenetic trees were made using BLAST, CLUSTALW and neighbor joining, respectively.
[1] Other researchers also found 16S rRNA gene evidence in a petroleum reservoir held at a temperature range between 55 °C and 75 °C in addition to freshwater and marine ecosystems, such as estuaries.
[10][11] By inoculating wastewater reactors with the anaerobic S. wagneri, operation costs can be reduced by about ninety percent without the production of greenhouse gases.