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Biodegradation and metabolic pathway of sulfamethoxazole by Pseudomonas psychrophila HA-4, a newly isolated cold-adapted sulfamethoxazole-degrading bacterium

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

Sulfamethoxazole is a common antibiotic that is frequently detected in wastewater and surface water. This study investigated the biodegradation and metabolic pathway of sulfamethoxazole by Pseudomonas psychrophila HA-4, a cold-adapted bacterium. Strain HA-4, which uses sulfamethoxazole as its sole source of carbon and energy, was isolated at a low temperature (10 °C) and identified as P. psychrophila by physico-biochemical characterization and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Strain HA-4 removed sulfamethoxazole at temperatures ranging from 5.0 °C to 30 °C, with the maximal removal rate at 10 °C. The maximal removal rate of sulfamethoxazole by strain HA-4 was 34.30 % after 192 h at 10 °C. The highest percentage of unsaturated fatty acid was determined to be 23.03 % at 10 °C, which adheres to the characteristic for cold-adapted psychrophiles and psychrotrophs. At low concentrations of sulfamethoxazole, the growth kinetics correlated well with the Haldane model. The single-substrate parameter values of sulfamethoxazole on cell growth were determined to be μ max = 0.01 h−1, K s = 20.91 mg/l and K i = 170.60 mg/l. Additionally, the major intermediates from sulfamethoxazole biodegradation by strain HA-4, including aniline, 3-amino-5-methylisoxazole, 4-aminothiophenol and sulfanilamide, were identified by GC-MS and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) analysis. The results demonstrate that strain HA-4 has the potential to degrade sulfamethoxazole at low temperatures.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51108120 and 51178139), the National Creative Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51121062), the 4th Special Financial Grant from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (201104430), and the 46th China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (20090460901).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China

    Benchao Jiang, Ang Li, Di Cui, Rui Cai, Fang Ma & Yingning Wang

  2. Harbin Institute of Environmental Science, Harbin, 150076, China

    Benchao Jiang

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  1. Benchao Jiang
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Correspondence to Ang Li or Fang Ma.

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Jiang, B., Li, A., Cui, D. et al. Biodegradation and metabolic pathway of sulfamethoxazole by Pseudomonas psychrophila HA-4, a newly isolated cold-adapted sulfamethoxazole-degrading bacterium. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98, 4671–4681 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-5488-3

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