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Microbial reduction of bromate: current status and prospects

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Abstract

Bromate is a disinfection byproduct (DBP) that forms during the ozonation of bromide-containing natural water, which may cause health risks to humans. In this review, we provide an overview of the mechanism of bromate formation, microbial communities and bioreactors that are responsible for bromate reduction. Bromate can be formed through two pathways of bromide oxidation by ozone or by ·OH, and it can be removed by biological approaches. Members belonging to phyla of Spirochaetes, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Clostridium, Deinococcus-Thermus and Bacteroidetes have been identified as capable of reducing bromate to bromide. Multiple configurations of biofilm bioreactors have been employed to cultivate microbial communities to perform bromate removal. The rapid development of multiomics has and will continue to accelerate the elucidation of the mechanisms involved in bromate and other DBP conversions, as well as the interaction patterns among different bacterial subdivisions in the bioremoval of DBPs.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51608329), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong (Grant No. 2017A030313315), Shenzhen Science and Technology Project (Grant Nos. JCYJ20160520165135743, JCYJ20170412171918012), National Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (Grant No. 2017ZX07202) and Natural Science Foundation of Shenzhen University (Grant Nos. 827-000223 and 2016008).

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  1. Xinyue Lv and Dan Wang have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, People’s Republic of China

    Xinyue Lv, Dan Wang, Waheed Iqbal, Bo Yang & Yanping Mao

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  1. Xinyue Lv
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  2. Dan Wang
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  3. Waheed Iqbal
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Correspondence to Yanping Mao.

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Lv, X., Wang, D., Iqbal, W. et al. Microbial reduction of bromate: current status and prospects. Biodegradation 30, 365–374 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-019-09882-x

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