THE "NOSTOCOIDA LIMICOLA" STORY : RESOLVING THE PHYLOGENY OF THIS MORPHOTYPE RESPONSIBLE FOR BULKING IN ACTIVATED SLUDGE

On the basis of 16SrRNA sequence analysis, it is clear that "N.limicola" I,II and III are not three morphological variants of a single bacterium but at least three phyloge-netically different bacteria respectively low and high mol%G+CGRAM positive bacteria and planctomycetales. Design and application of 16SrRNA targeted probes for each to biomass samples suggests that their phylogeny is more diverse than pure culture studies would suggest.