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Soil Bacterial Consortia and Previous Exposure Enhance the Biodegradation of Sulfonamides from Pig Manure

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Persistence or degradation of synthetic antibiotics in soil is crucial in assessing their environmental risks. Microbial catabolic activity in a sandy loamy soil with pig manure using 12C- and 14C-labelled sulfamethazine (SMZ) respirometry showed that SMZ was not readily degradable. But after 100 days, degradation in sulfadiazine-exposed manure was 9.2%, far greater than soil and organic manure (0.5% and 0.11%, respectively, p < 0.05). Abiotic degradation was not detected suggesting microbial catabolism as main degradation mechanism. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism showed biodiversity increases within 1 day of SMZ spiking and especially after 200 days, although some species plummeted. A clone library from the treatment with highest degradation showed that most bacteria belonged to α, β and γ classes of Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Acidobacteria. Proteobacteria (α, β and γ), Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes which were the most abundant classes on day 1 also decreased most following prolonged exposure. From the matrix showing the highest degradation rate, 17 SMZ-resistant isolates biodegraded low levels of 14 C-labelled SMZ when each species was incubated separately (0.2–1.5%) but biodegradation was enhanced when the four isolates with the highest biodegradation were incubated in a consortium (Bacillus licheniformis, Pseudomonas putida, Alcaligenes sp. and Aquamicrobium defluvium as per 16S rRNA gene sequencing), removing up to 7.8% of SMZ after 20 days. One of these species (B. licheniformis) was a known livestock and occasional human pathogen. Despite an environmental role of these species in sulfonamide bioremediation, the possibility of horizontal transfer of pathogenicity and resistance genes should caution against an indiscriminate use of these species as sulfonamide degraders.

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Acknowledgements

This research was carried out with funding from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia from Mexico. We are thankful for the valuable comments from three anonymous reviewers and to Alejandro de las Heras for helpful discussions regarding the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Interamericano de Recursos del Agua, Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, Toluca, Mexico

    Marina Islas-Espinoza

  2. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Brian J. Reid

  3. School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Margaret Wexler

  4. Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Philip L. Bond

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  1. Marina Islas-Espinoza
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Correspondence to Marina Islas-Espinoza.

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Islas-Espinoza, M., Reid, B.J., Wexler, M. et al. Soil Bacterial Consortia and Previous Exposure Enhance the Biodegradation of Sulfonamides from Pig Manure. Microb Ecol 64, 140–151 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-012-0010-5

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