Candidatus_Brocadia_anammoxidans
Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans
Species of bacterium
"Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans" is a bacterial member of the phylum Planctomycetota and therefore lacks peptidoglycan in its cell wall, and has a compartmentalized cytoplasm.
"Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans" was the first discovered organism capable of the anaerobic oxidation of ammonium, and it is the only organism known to produce hydrazine.[1] This process (dubbed the anammox-process) was discovered in the 1980s by the Gijs Kuenen lab in a waste water treatment plant in Delft, Netherlands. Ammonium oxidation is coupled to nitrite reduction to form the harmless dinitrogen gas.
The key enzyme involved in this reaction, hydroxylamine oxidoreductase, is located in an organelle-like structure called the anammoxosome. The ability to oxidize ammonium anaerobically makes "Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans" potentially useful for reducing—or eliminating—ammonium from waste water.[2]