Evaluating the effect of fenton pretreated pyridine wastewater under different biological conditions: Microbial diversity and biotransformation pathways

Novel insights into the co-metabolism of pyridine with different carbon substrates: Performance, metabolism pathway and microbial community

Pyridine is a widely employed nitrogen-containing heterocyclic organic, and the discharge of pyridine wastewater poses substantial environmental challenges due to its recalcitrance and toxicity. Co-metabolic degradation emerged as a promising solution. In this study, readily degradable glucose and the structurally analogous phenol were used as co-metabolic substrates respectively, and the corresponding mechanisms were thoroughly explored. To treat 400 mg/L pyridine, all reactors achieved remarkably high removal efficiencies, surpassing 98.5%. And the co-metabolism reactors had much better pyridine-N removal performance. Batch experiments revealed that glucose supplementation bolstered nitrogen assimilation, thereby promoting the breakdown of pyridine, and resulting in the highest pyridine removal rate and pyridine-N removal efficiency. The high abundance of Saccharibacteria (15.54%) and the enrichment of GLU and glnA substantiated this finding. On the contrary, phenol delayed pyridine oxidation, potentially due to its higher affinity for phenol hydroxylase. Nevertheless, phenol proved valuable as a carbon source for denitrification, augmenting the elimination of pyridine-N. This was underscored by the abundant Thauera (30.77%) and Parcubacteria (7.21%) and the enriched denitrification enzymes (narH, narG, norB, norC, and nosZ, etc.). This study demonstrated that co-metabolic degradation can bolster the simultaneous conversion of pyridine and pyridine-N, and shed light on the underling mechanism.

Occurrence, characteristics, and microbial community of microplastics in anaerobic sludge of wastewater treatment plants

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) usually contain microplastics (MPs) due to daily influents of domestic and municipal wastewater. Thus, the WWTPs act as a point source of MPs distribution in the environment due to their incapability to remove MPs completely. In this study, MPs occurrence and distribution in anaerobic sludge from WWTPs in different regions (Kaifeng "KHP", Jinan "JSP", and Lanzhou "LGP") were studied. Followed by MPs identification by microscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum. The microbial communities associated with anaerobic sludge and MPs were also explored. The results showed that MPs concentrations were 16.5, 38.5, and 17.2 particles/g of total solids (TS) and transparent MPs accounted for 49.1%, 58.5%, and 48.3% in KHP, JSP, and LGP samples, respectively. Fibers represented the most common shape of MPs in KHP (49.1%), JSP (56.0%), and LGP (69.0%). The FTIR spectroscopy indicated the predominance of polyethylene polymer in 1-5 mm MPs. The Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Planctomycetes were the abundant phyla in all anaerobic sludge. The bacterial genera in KHP and LGP were similar, in which Caldilinea (>23%), Terrimonas (>10%), and Ferruginibacter (>7%) formed the core bacterial genera. While Rhodococcus (15.3%) and Rhodoplanes (10.9%) were dominating in JSP. The archaeal genera Methanosaeta (>69%) and Methanobrevibacter (>10%) were abundant in KHP and LGP sludge. While Methanomethylovorans accounted for 90% of JSP. Acetyltransferase and hydratase were the major bacterial enzymes, while reductase was the key archaeal enzyme in all anaerobic sludge. This study provided the baseline for MPs distribution, characterization, and MPs associated microbes in WWTPs.

Physicochemical and microbial community dynamics of Kocho fermented from different enset varieties in South West Ethiopia

Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) is an indigenous multipurpose plant in Ethiopia. More than 20 % of people in Ethiopia rely on enset for their subsistence livelihood. Its fermentation produces a starchy food named Kocho, which is yet poorly studied. In this study, physicochemical and microbial community dynamics of Kocho fermented from different enset varieties (Maziya, Genna, and Arkiya) were collected at Dawro Zone (Southern Ethiopia). Samples were collected at various fermentation times (days 1-60) for physicochemical and microbial (culture-dependent and culture-independent) characterization. Results showed that increasing fermentation time has a significantly strong positive (R2 = 0.768, p = 0.004) correlation between titrable acidity, and a significantly strong negative association with pH (R2 = -0.715, p = 0.009), moisture (R2 = -0.982, p < 0.05), ash (R2 = -0.932, p < 0.05), fat (R2 = -0.861, p < 0.05), fiber (R2 = -0.981, p < 0.05) and carbohydrate (R2 = -0.994, p < 0.001) contents. An increasing or decreasing trend of physicochemical parameters observed during enset fermentation is significantly associated with microbial community dynamics. Shifts of microbial community observed during culture-dependent analysis were also confirmed by metagenomic results. During fermentation, Firmicutes (39-68 %) > Proteobacteria (7-53 %) > Cyanobacteria (7-24 %) were dominant phyla in the three enset varieties. Gamma (traditional starter culture) is dominated by Lactobacillus plantrum and Lactobacillus manihotivorans most probably the two species that play a significant role in initiating enset fermentation.

Efficient pyridine biodegradation by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia J2: Degradation performance, mechanism, and immobilized application for wastewater

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia J2, a highly efficient pyridine-degrading bacterium, was isolated from the aerobic tank of a pesticide-contaminated wastewater treatment plant. The strain J2 demonstrated an impressive pyridine degradation rate of 98.34% ± 0.49% within 72 h, at a pyridine concentration of 1100 mg·L-1, a temperature of 30 °C, a pH of 8.0, and a NaCl concentration of 0.5%. Notably, two new pyridine metabolic intermediates, 1,3-dihydroxyacetone and butyric acid, were discovered, indicating that J2 may degrade pyridine through two distinct metabolic pathways. Furthermore, the immobilized strain J2 was obtained by immobilizing J2 with biochar derived from the stem of Solidago canadensis L. In the pyridine-contaminated wastewater bioremediation experiment, the immobilized strain J2 was able to remove 2000 mg·L-1 pyridine with a 98.66% ± 0.47% degradation rate in 24 h, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (3.17% ± 1.24%), and remained above 90% in subsequent cycles until the 27th cycle. High-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that the J2 +B group had an elevated relative abundance of bacteria and functional genes that could be associated with the degradation of pyridine. The results offer a foundation for the effective use of immobilized strain in the treatment of recalcitrant pyridine-contaminated wastewater.

Microbial diversity, transformation and toxicity of azo dye biodegradation using thermo-alkaliphilic microbial consortia

In this research, the transformation and toxicity of Reactive Red 141 and 239 biodegraded under anaerobic-aerobic conditions as well as metagenomic analysis of Reactive Red 239 degrading microbial consortia collected from Shala Hot spring were investigated. Toxicity of dyes before treatment and after treatment on three plants, fish and microorganisms were done. A halotolerant and thermo-alkaliphilic bacterial consortia decolorizing azo dyes (>98% RR 141 and > 96% RR 239 in 7 h) under optimum conditions of salt concentration (0.5%), temperature (55 °C) and pH (9), were used. Toxicity effect of untreated dyes and treated dyes in Tomato > Beetroot > Cabbage plants, while the effect was Leuconostoc mesenteroides > Lactobacillus plantarum > Escherichia coli in microorganisms. Among fishes, the toxicity effect was highest in Oreochromis niloticus followed by Cyprinus carpio and Clarias gariepinus. The three most dominant phyla that could be in charge of decolorizing RR 239 under anaerobic-aerobic systems were Bacteroidota (22.6-29.0%), Proteobacteria (13.5-29.0%), and Chloroflexi (8.8-23.5%). At class level microbial community structure determination, Bacteroidia (18.9-27.2%), Gammaproteobacteria (11.0-15.8%), Alphaproteobacteria (2.5-5.0%) and Anaerolineae (17.0-21.9%) were dominant classes. The transformation of RR 141 and RR 239 into amine compounds were proposed via high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (HPLC/MS) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Overall, dye containing wastewaters treated under anaerobic-aerobic systems using thermo-alkaliphilic microbial consortia were found to be safe to agricultural (fishes and vegetables) purposes.

Expression and Characterization of 3,6-Dihydroxy-picolinic Acid Decarboxylase PicC of Bordetella bronchiseptica RB50

Picolinic acid (PA) is a typical mono-carboxylated pyridine derivative produced by human/animals or microorganisms which could be served as nutrients for bacteria. Most Bordetella strains are pathogens causing pertussis or respiratory disease in humans and/or various animals. Previous studies indicated that Bordetella strains harbor the PA degradation pic gene cluster. However, the degradation of PA by Bordetella strains remains unknown. In this study, a reference strain of genus Bordetella, B. bronchiseptica RB50, was investigated. The organization of pic gene cluster of strain RB50 was found to be similar with that of Alcaligenes faecalis, in which the sequence similarities of each Pic proteins are between 60% to 80% except for PicB2 (47% similarity). The 3,6-dihydroxypicolinic acid (3,6DHPA) decarboxylase gene (BB0271, designated as picCRB50) of strain RB50 was synthesized and over-expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3). The PicCRB50 showed 75% amino acid similarities against known PicC from Alcaligenes faecalis. The purified PicCRB50 can efficiently transform 3,6DHPA to 2,5-dihydroxypyridine. The PicCRB50 exhibits optimal activities at pH 7.0, 35 °C, and the Km and kcat values of PicCRB50 for 3,6DHPA were 20.41 ± 2.60 μM and 7.61 ± 0.53 S−1, respectively. The present study provided new insights into the biodegradation of PA by pathogens of Bordetella spp.

Evaluating the potential of thermo-alkaliphilic microbial consortia for azo dye biodegradation under anaerobic-aerobic conditions: Optimization and microbial diversity analysis

Wastewaters in textile industry are mainly characterized by higher pH, color, salt and chemical oxygen demand (COD) values, which are environmentally undesirable. Among these textile effluent characteristics, color removal is the most challenging task. In this study, the potential of Rift Valley halotolerant and thermo-alkaliphilic microbial consortia (collected from Shala hot spring located in Ethiopia) for azo dye biodegradation under anaerobic-aerobic conditions were evaluated. Optimization and microbial diversity analysis were done using Reactive Red 141. Under optimum conditions of pH (9), temperature (55 °C), salinity (0.5%), and nutrients, microbial consortia can remove >98% color and 92.7 ± 7.3% COD under anaerobic and aerobic conditions, respectively. In addition, the consortia was capable of decolorizing initial dye concentrations of 100-1000 mg/L, and various dye types including Everzol Blue LX, RY 84, RR 239, RB 198 and RY 700. The 16S rRNA gene sequence results showed that Bacteroidetes (25.3%) > Proteobacteria (21.0%) > Chloroflexi (18.5%) > Halobacterota (6.2%) dominant phyla. Based on the findings, non-color effluent adapted Rift Valley halotolerant and thermo-alkaliphilic bacterial consortia can be a potential candidate for bioremediation of textile and other industries characterized by higher salinity, temperature and pH.

Microbial community shifts association with physicochemical parameters: Visualizing enset bacterial wilt from different states of enset health

Bacterial wilt of enset caused by Xanthomonas campestris is a devastating disease in Ethiopia, where enset is domesticated and served as a staple food for about 20 million people in the country. While enset is infected by bacteria, it shows different wilting stages. However, the microbial community shifts at the different stages of enset infection and associated physicochemical parameter changes remain poorly understood. This study was aimed to visualize the proportion of enset wilt bacterium from other microbial community and its association with physicochemical parameter at different states of enset health. Soil and enset (zero, first, second and third stages) samples were collected from three districts in Gamo Highlands for physicochemical and biological (culture dependent and16S rRNA gene sequence) analysis. The results of culture dependent analysis which has been complemented by 16S rRNA gene sequence confirmed that increasing trends were observed for Xanthomonadaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Lactobacillaceae and Flavobacteriaceae, while Bacillaceae and Enterobacteriaceae showed progressive decrease from zero to the third stage. Particularly, the 16S rRNA data showed that Xanthomonadaceae increased significantly from zero to different (2.5 × 10² times at the onset of disease and 1.0-2.0 × 10⁴ times at the second and third) stages of enset infection. Most physicochemical results showed that a decreasing trends from zero to third stage, while few parameters are showing an increasing trend. Moisture content (R² ≥ 0.951, P ≤ 0.049) of the soil and plant samples positively influenced Xanthomonas abundance, while this bacterium showed a strongly negative significant correlation with pH (R² ≥ -0.962, P ≤ 0.038), temperature (R² ≥ -0.958, P ≤ 0.042), OM (R² ≥ -0.952, P ≤ 0.048), and TN (R² ≥ -0.951, P ≤ 0.049). A strongly negative significant correlation (R² ≥ -0.948, P ≤ 0.050) was also observed between Xanthomonas and nutrients (K, Mg, Ca, and Cu). Overall, this study implies that different environmental factors found a key driving force of Xanthomonas proportional increment from low abundance at zero stage to higher abundance at the last stage of enset infection suggesting that considering these factors help to design an effective enset disease management strategy, for which further studies will be needed.

Selective acceleration of 2-hydroxyl pyridine mono-oxygenation using specially acclimated biomass

Biodegradation of pyridine starts with two mono-oxygenation reactions, and 2-hydroxyl pyridine (2-HP) accumulates as pyridine is mono-oxygenated in the first reaction. The accumulation of 2-HP inhibits both initial reactions. Therefore, selective acceleration of the second mono-oxygenation reaction should significantly enhance pyridine transformation and mineralization. Activated-sludge biomass was separately acclimated with pyridine or 2-HP to produce pyridine- and 2-HP-acclimated biomasses. The pyridine-acclimated biomass was superior for pyridine biodegradation, but the 2-HP-acclimated biomass was superior for 2-HP biodegradation. As a consequence, the pyridine-acclimated biomass by itself achieved faster mono-oxygenation of pyridine to 2-HP, but 2-HP accumulated, which limited mineralization to 60%. In contrast, mineralization reached 90% when one-third of the pyridine-acclimated was replaced with 2-HP-acclimated biomass, because 2-HP did not accumulate during pyridine biodegradation. The lack of 2-HP accumulation relieved its inhibition: e.g., the pyridine removal rates, normalized to the mass of pyridine-acclimated biomass, increased from 0.52 to 0.57 mM^0.5⋅h^-1 when one-third of the pyridine-acclimated biomass was replaced by 2-HP-acclimated biomass. Phylogenetic analysis showed that microbiological communities of pyridine-acclimated biomass and 2-HP-acclimated biomass differed in important ways. On the one hand, the 2-HP-acclimated biomass was richer and dominated by a rare biosphere, or genera having <0.1% of total reads. On the other hand, the most-enriched genus in the pyridine-acclimated community (Methylibium) is associated with the first mono-oxygenation of pyridine, while enriched genera in the 2-HP-acclimated community (Sediminibacterium and Dokdonella) are associated with the second mono-oxygenation of pyridine.

Synergy between pyridine anaerobic mineralization and vanadium (V) oxyanion bio-reduction for aquifer remediation

The co-occurrence of toxic pyridine (Pyr) and vanadium (V) oxyanion [V(V)] in aquifer has been of emerging concern. However, interactions between their biogeochemical fates remain poorly characterized, with absence of efficient route to decontamination of this combined pollution. In this work, microbial-driven Pyr degradation coupled to V(V) reduction was demonstrated for the first time. Removal efficiencies of Pyr and V(V) reached 94.8 ± 1.55% and 51.2 ± 0.20% in 72 h operation. The supplementation of co-substrate (glucose) deteriorated Pyr degradation slightly, but significantly promoted V(V) reduction efficiency to 84.5 ± 0.635%. Pyr was mineralized with NH₄⁺-N accumulation, while insoluble vanadium (IV) was the major product from V(V) bio-reduction. It was observed that Bacillus and Pseudomonas realized synchronous Pyr and V(V) removals independently. Interspecific synergy between Pyr degraders and V(V) reducers also functioned with addition of co-substrate. V(V) was bio-reduced through alternative electron acceptor pathway conducted by gene nirS encoded nitrite reductase, which was evidenced by gene abundance and enzyme activity. Cytochrome c, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and extracellular polymeric substances also contributed to the coupled bioprocess. This work provides new insights into biogeochemical activities of Pyr and V(V), and proposes novel strategy for remediation of their co-contaminated aquifer.

Effect of the gradual increase of Na2SO4 on performance and microbial diversity of aerobic granular sludge

Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) is a promising technology in treating saline wastewater. The effects of sodium sulfate on contaminant removal performance and sludge characteristics of AGS were studied. The results showed that under the stress of sodium sulfate, AGS kept good removal performance of ammonia nitrogen (NH+ 4-N), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total nitrogen (TN), with removal efficiency reaching 98.7%, 91.5% and 62.7%, respectively. When sodium sulfate reached 14700 mg/L, nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were inhibited and nitrite accumulation occurred, but it had little impact on total phosphorus (TP) removal. Under the stress of sodium sulfate, compactness and settling performance of AGS was enhanced. The microbial community greatly varied and the microbial diversity of aerobic granular sludge has decreased under the stress of sodium sulfate. The study reveals that AGS has great potential in application on treating saline wastewater.