Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 274, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.116536
Keywords
WWTP effluent; Biopurification systems; Ibuprofen; Biodegradation; Metabolites
Categories
Funding
- Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad
- Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) [CTM 2013-44271-R, CTM 2017-86504-R]
- European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [RGPIN-2019-06428]
- FPI grant
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The study on the ibuprofen-mineralizing bacterial strain RW412 isolated from sediments of the River Elbe showed that it can eliminate more than 2 mM ibuprofen within 74 hours in liquid mineral salts medium, and quickly remove ibuprofen in biopurification systems as well.
The high global consumption of ibuprofen and its limited elimination by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), has led to the contamination of aquatic systems by this common analgesic and its metabolites. The potentially negative environmental and public health effects of this emerging contaminant have raised concerns, driving the demand for treatment technologies. The implementation of bacteria which mineralize organic contaminants in biopurification systems used to decontaminate water or directly in processes in WWTPs, is a cheap and sustainable means for complete elimination before release into the environment. In this work, an ibuprofen-mineralizing bacterial strain isolated from sediments of the River Elbe was characterized and assayed to remediate different ibuprofen-polluted media. Strain RW412, which was identified as Sphingopyxis granuli, has a 4.48 Mb genome which includes plasmid sequences which harbor the ipf genes that encode the first steps of ibuprofen mineralization. Here, we confirm that these genes encode enzymes which initiate CoA ligation to ibuprofen, followed by aromatic ring activation by a dioxygenase and retroaldol cleavage to unequivocally produce 4-isobutylcatechol and propionyl-CoA which then undergo further degradation. In liquid mineral salts medium, the strain eliminated more than 2 mM ibuprofen within 74 h with a generation time of 16 h. Upon inoculation into biopurification systems, it eliminated repeated doses of ibuprofen within a few days. Furthermore, in these systems the presence of RW412 avoided the accumulation of ibuprofen metabolites. In ibuprofen-spiked effluent from a municipal WWTP, ibuprofen removal by this strain was 7 times faster than by the indigenous microbiota. These results suggest that this strain can persist and remain active under environmentally relevant conditions, and may be a useful innovation to eliminate this emerging contaminant from urban wastewater treatment systems. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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