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Microbial diversity assessment of polychlorinated biphenyl–contaminated soils and the biostimulation and bioaugmentation processes

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to know the biodiversity of total microorganisms contained in two polychlorinated biphenyl-contaminated aged soils and evaluate the strategies of bioaugmentation and biostimulation to biodegrade the biphenyls. Besides, the aerobic cultivable microorganisms were isolated and their capacity to biodegrade a commercial mixture of six congeners of biphenyls was evaluated. Biodiversity of contaminated soils was dominated by Actinobacteria (42.79%) and Firmicutes (42.32%) phyla, and others in smaller proportions such as Proteobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Chloroflexi, and Bacteroidetes. At the genus level, the majority of the population did not exceed 7% of relative abundance, including Bacillus, Achromobacter, Clostridium, and Pontibacter. Furthermore, four autochthonous bacterial cultures were possible isolates from the soils, which were identified by partial sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, as Bacillus sp., Achromobacter sp., Pseudomonas stutzeri, and Bacillus subtilis, which were used for the bioaugmentation process. The bioaugmentation and biostimulation strategies achieved a biodegradation of about 60% of both soils after 8 weeks of the process; also, the four isolates were used as mixed culture to biodegrade a commercial mix of six polychlorinated biphenyl congeners; after 4 weeks of incubation, the concentration decreased from 0.5 mg/L to 0.23 mg/L.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank Dra. Elvira Rios Leal for her support in the analysis of samples by GC-ECD, and the Biologist Alberto Piña Escobedo for his help in the massive sequencing, both from Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional.

Funding

This research was funded by CONACyT-163235 INFR-2011-01.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Coordinación Académica Región Altiplano, Carretera a Cedral Km 5+600, San José de las Trojes, Matehuala City, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

    Elsa Cervantes-González, Mariela Anelhayet Guevara-García & Víctor Manuel Ovando-Medina

  2. Department of Genetic and Molecular Biology, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Unidad Zacatenco, Av. IPN 2508, Col. San Pedro Zacatenco,, 07360, Mexico City D.F., Mexico

    Jaime García-Mena

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  1. Elsa Cervantes-González
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Cervantes-González, E., Guevara-García, M.A., García-Mena, J. et al. Microbial diversity assessment of polychlorinated biphenyl–contaminated soils and the biostimulation and bioaugmentation processes. Environ Monit Assess 191, 118 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7227-4

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