Effects of sulphur and Thiobacillus thioparus 1904 on nitrogen cycle genes during chicken manure aerobic composting

Severe nitrogen (N) loss is a barrier for composting treatment. Since N transformation during composting is closely related to nitrogen loss, the impacts of adding sulphur and Thiobacillus thioparus 1904 to N transformation during composting were investigated in this work. Physicochemical properties and the expression of genes encoding N-related proteins were analysed to evaluate microbiological processes associated with N dynamics. The results indicated that (1) sulphur addition reduced the pH and cumulative NH3 emission, and decreased N losses by 44.23%, while no significant differences were observed in the expression of N cycle-associated genes compared with the control treatment; (2) the application of T. thioparus 1904 increased NO3−-N content, reduced N loss by 28.20%, and significantly enhanced the expression of ammonia monooxygenase A (archaeal amoA; AOA) and nitrite oxidoreductase A (nxrA) during the mature phase; (3) the combined application of sulphur and T. thioparus 1904 significantly affected the expression of functional genes related to nitrification and denitrification, which contributed to a reduction in accumulated NH3 emission, an increase in NO4+-N content, and a decrease in N losses by 70.94%. Expression of ammonia monooxygenase A (bacterial amoA; AOB), nxrA and nitrous oxide reductase Z (nosZ) genes in the combined treatment was positively correlated with NO3−-N, whereas expression of AOA and accumulation of NH3 were negatively correlated with NO3−-N. These results indicate that the combined application of sulphur and T. thioparus 1904 had a significant regulatory effect on N cycle genes and effectively reduced the N loss during composting.