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Biodegradation of sulfamethoxazole by individual and mixed bacteria

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Abstract

Antibiotic compounds, like sulfamethoxazole (SMX), have become a concern in the aquatic environment due to the potential development of antibacterial resistances. Due to excretion and disposal, SMX has been frequently detected in wastewaters and surface waters. SMX removal in conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) ranges from 0% to 90%, and there are opposing results regarding its biodegradability at lab scale. The objective of this research was to determine the ability of pure cultures of individual and mixed consortia of bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas putida, Rhodococcus equi, Rhodococcus erythropolis, Rhodococcus rhodocrous, and Rhodococcus zopfii) known to exist in WWTP activated sludge to remove SMX. Results showed that R. equi alone had the greatest ability to remove SMX leading to 29% removal (with glucose) and the formation of a metabolite. Degradation pathways and metabolite structures have been proposed based on the potential enzymes produced by R. equi. When R. equi was mixed with other microorganisms, a positive synergistic effect was not observed and the maximum SMX removal achieved was 5%. This indicates that pure culture results cannot be extrapolated to mixed culture conditions, and the methodology developed here to study the biodegradability of compounds under controlled mixed culture conditions offers an alternative to conventional studies using pure bacterial cultures or inocula from activated sludge sources consisting of unknown and variable microbial populations.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the McGill Engineering Doctoral Award (MEDA), The J.W. McConnell Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Health Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Montréal, QC, H3A 2B2, Canada

    Simone Larcher & Viviane Yargeau

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  1. Simone Larcher
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  2. Viviane Yargeau
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Correspondence to Viviane Yargeau.

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Table 2

Effect of individual bacteria pre-inoculant dilution on mixed bacteria results: maximum growth (optical density measured at 540 nm) and SMX percent removal. Group 1: P. aeruginosa, P. putida, R. equi, R. erythropolis, and R. rhodocrous. Group 2: B. subtilis, P. putida, R. equi, R. erythropolis, R. rhodocrous, and R. zopfii (DOC 34.5 kb)

Figure 3

Structures of a sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and two proposed metabolites of degradation based on the enzyme production of R. equi and P. aeruginosa; b an acetylated by-product and c its alcohol derivative (DOC 31.5 kb)

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Larcher, S., Yargeau, V. Biodegradation of sulfamethoxazole by individual and mixed bacteria. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 91, 211–218 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3257-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3257-8

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