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Investigating degradation metabolites and underlying pathway of azo dye “Reactive Black 5” in bioaugmented floating treatment wetlands

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Abstract

The direct discharge of azo dyes and/or their metabolites into the environment may exert toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic effects on exposed fauna and flora. In this study, we analyzed the metabolites produced during the degradation of an azo dye namely Reactive Black 5 (RB5) in the bacterial-augmented floating treatment wetlands (FTWs), followed by the investigation of their underlying toxicity. To this end, a FTWs system was developed by using a common wetland plant Phragmites australis in the presence of three dye-degrading bacteria (Acinetobacter junii strain NT-15, Pseudomonas indoloxydans strain NT-38, and Rhodococcus sp. strain NT-39). We found that the FTW system effectively degraded RB5 into at least 20 different metabolites with the successful removal of color (95.5%) from the water. The fish toxicity assay revealed the nontoxic characteristics of the metabolites produced after dye degradation. Our study suggests that bacterially aided FTWs could be a suitable option for the successful degradation of azo dyes, and the results presented in this study may help improve the overall textile effluent cleanup processes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to the anonymous reviewer for his/her thoughtful and expert critiques.

Funding

The authors are thankful to the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan, for providing funding. The grant number is 1-52/ILS-UITSP/HEC/2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Jhang Road, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Nain Tara, Mazhar Iqbal, Fazal-e Habib, Qaiser Mahmood Khan, Samina Iqbal & Muhammad Afzal

  2. Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), Islamabad, Pakistan

    Nain Tara, Mazhar Iqbal, Fazal-e Habib, Qaiser Mahmood Khan, Samina Iqbal & Muhammad Afzal

  3. Department of Biology, Aarhus University, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Hans Brix

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  1. Nain Tara
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  2. Mazhar Iqbal
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  3. Fazal-e Habib
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  4. Qaiser Mahmood Khan
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  5. Samina Iqbal
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  6. Muhammad Afzal
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Contributions

NT, MA, and SI were contributed in the experimental setup, data analysis, and manuscript preparation. FH, MI, and HB were involved in LCMS analysis, degradation pathways, and manuscript writing. QMK was contributed to the toxicity analysis of the water samples.

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Correspondence to Mazhar Iqbal or Muhammad Afzal.

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Tara, N., Iqbal, M., Habib, Fe. et al. Investigating degradation metabolites and underlying pathway of azo dye “Reactive Black 5” in bioaugmented floating treatment wetlands. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 65229–65242 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15130-8

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