Abstract
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) impose adverse effects on the environment and human life. The use of synthetic microbial consortia is promising in bioremediation of contaminated sites with these pollutants. However, the design of consortia taking advantage of natural interactions has been poorly explored. In this study, a dual synthetic bacterial consortium (DSC_AB) was constructed with two key members (Sphingobium sp. AM and Burkholderia sp. Bk), of a natural PAH degrading consortium. DSC_AB showed significantly enhanced degradation of PAHs and toxic intermediary metabolites relative to the axenic cultures, indicating the existence of synergistic relationships. Metaproteomic and gene-expression analyses were applied to obtain a view of bacterial performance during phenanthrene removal. Overexpression of the Bk genes, naph, biph, tol and sal and the AM gene, ahdB, in DSC_AB relative to axenic cultures, demonstrated that both strains are actively participating in degradation, which gave evidence of cross-feeding. Several proteins related to stress response were under-expressed in DSC_AB relative to axenic cultures, indicating that the division of labour reduces cellular stress, increasing the efficiency of degradation. This is the one of the first works revealing bacterial relationships during PAH removal in a synthetic consortium applying an omics approach. Our findings could be used to develop criteria for evaluating the potential effectiveness of synthetic bacterial consortia in bioremediation.
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Funding
This research was partially supported by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT 2013–0103). Nieto E. has doctoral fellowship and Macchi M. has a postdoctoral fellowships supported by CONICET. Morelli I.S. is a research member of CIC-PBA. Coppotelli B.M., Festa S. and Valacco P. are research members of CONICET.
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EEN: Investigation, Conceptualization, Software Methodology, Formal analysis, Data Curation Writing - original draft Writing - Review & Editing - MM: Investigation, Software, Methodology, Formal analysis, Validation, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft, Review & Editing SF: Investigation, Formal analysis, Validation, Review MPV: Investigation, Software, Formal analysis, Validation, Review & Editing ISM: Supervision, Resources, Funding acquisition, Review & Editing. BMC: Investigation, Conceptualization, Project administration, Methodology, Resources, Funding acquisition, Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization.
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Nieto, E.E., Macchi, M., Valacco, M.P. et al. Metaproteomic and gene expression analysis of interspecies interactions in a PAH-degrading synthetic microbial consortium constructed with the key microbes of a natural consortium. Biodegradation 34, 181–197 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-10012-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-10012-3