Metagenomic investigations into the microbial consortia, degradation pathways, and enzyme systems involved in the biodegradation of plastics in a tropical lentic pond sediment

The exploitation of exciting features of plastics for diverse applications has resulted in significant plastic waste generation, which negatively impacts environmental compartments, metabolic processes, and the well-being of aquatic ecosystems biota. A shotgun metagenomic approach was deployed to investigate the microbial consortia, degradation pathways, and enzyme systems involved in the degradation of plastics in a tropical lentic pond sediment (APS). Functional annotation of the APS proteome (ORFs) using the PlasticDB database revealed annotation of 1015 proteins of enzymes such as depolymerase, esterase, lipase, hydrolase, nitrobenzylesterase, chitinase, carboxylesterase, polyesterase, oxidoreductase, polyamidase, PETase, MHETase, laccase, alkane monooxygenase, among others involved in the depolymerization of the plastic polymers. It also revealed that polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), polylactic acid (PLA), polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and nylon have the highest number of annotated enzymes. Further annotation using the KEGG GhostKOALA revealed that except for terephthalate, all the other degradation products of the plastic polymers depolymerization such as glyoxylate, adipate, succinate, 1,4-butanediol, ethylene glycol, lactate, and acetaldehyde were further metabolized to intermediates of the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Taxonomic characterization of the annotated proteins using the AAI Profiler and BLASTP revealed that Pseudomonadota members dominate most plastic types, followed by Actinomycetota and Acidobacteriota. The study reveals novel plastic degraders from diverse phyla hitherto not reported to be involved in plastic degradation. This suggests that plastic pollution in aquatic environments is prevalent with well-adapted degrading communities and could be the silver lining in mitigating the impacts of plastic pollution in aquatic environments.

Biostimulation potentials of corn steep liquor in enhanced hydrocarbon degradation in chronically polluted soil

The effects of corn steep liquor (CSL) on hydrocarbon degradation and microbial community structure and function was evaluated in field-moist soil microcosms. Chronically polluted soil treated with CSL (AB4) and an untreated control (3S) was compared over a period of 6 weeks. Gas chromatographic fingerprints of residual hydrocarbons revealed removal of 95.95% and 94.60% aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon fractions in AB4 system with complete disappearance of nC₁-nC₈, nC₁₀, nC₁₅, nC₂₀-nC₂₃ aliphatics and aromatics such as naphthalene, acenaphthylene, fluorene, phenanthrene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene, and indeno(123-cd)pyrene in 42 days. In 3S system, there is removal of 61.27% and 66.58% aliphatic and aromatic fractions with complete disappearance of nC₂ and nC₂₁ aliphatics and naphthalene, acenaphthylene, fluorene, phenanthrene, pyrene, and benzo(a)anthracene aromatics in 42 days. Illumina shotgun sequencing of the DNA extracted from the two systems showed the preponderance of Actinobacteria (31.46%) and Proteobacteria (38.95%) phyla in 3S and AB4 with the dominance of Verticillium (22.88%) and Microbacterium (8.16%) in 3S, and Laceyella (24.23%), Methylosinus (8.93%) and Pedobacter (7.73%) in AB4. Functional characterization of the metagenomic reads revealed diverse metabolic potentials and adaptive traits of the microbial communities in the two systems to various environmental stressors. It also revealed the exclusive detection of catabolic enzymes in AB4 system belonging to the aldehyde dehydrogenase superfamily. The results obtained in this study showed that CSL is a potential resource for bioremediation of hydrocarbon-polluted soils.

Characterization of bacterial community structure in a hydrocarbon-contaminated tropical African soil

The bacterial community structure in a hydrocarbon-contaminated Mechanical Engineering Workshop (MWO) soil was deciphered using 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis. Four hundred and thirty-seven clones cutting across 13 bacterial phyla were recovered from the soil. The representative bacterial phyla identified from MWO soil are Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Planctomycetes, Ignavibacteriae, Spirochaetes, Chlamydiae, Candidatus Saccharibacteria and Parcubacteria. Proteobacteria is preponderant in the contaminated soil (51.2%) with all classes except Epsilonproteobacteria duly represented. Rarefaction analysis indicates 42%, 52% and 77% of the clone library is covered at the species, genus and family/class delineations with Shannon diversity (H') and Chao1 richness indices of 5.59 and 1126, respectively. A sizeable number of bacterial phylotypes in the clone library shared high similarities with strains previously described to be involved in hydrocarbon biodegradation. Novel uncultured genera were identified that have not been previously reported from tropical African soil to be associated with natural attenuation of hydrocarbon pollutants. This study establishes the involvement of a wide array of physiologically diverse bacterial groups in natural attenuation of hydrocarbon pollutants in soil.

Properties, environmental fate and biodegradation of carbazole

The last two decades had witnessed extensive investigation on bacterial degradation of carbazole, an N-heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Specifically, previous studies have reported the primary importance of angular dioxygenation, a novel type of oxygenation reaction, which facilitates mineralization of carbazole to intermediates of the TCA cycle. Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria are the predominant bacterial phyla implicated in this novel mode of dioxygenation, while anthranilic acid and catechol are the signature metabolites. Several studies have elucidated the degradative genes involved, the diversity of the car gene clusters and the unique organization of the car gene clusters in marine carbazole degraders. However, there is paucity of information regarding the environmental fate as well as industrial and medical importance of carbazole and its derivatives. In this review, attempt is made to harness this information to present a comprehensive outlook that not only focuses on carbazole biodegradation pathways, but also on its environmental fate as well as medical and industrial importance of carbazole and its derivatives.

Metagenomic insights into effects of spent engine oil perturbation on the microbial community composition and function in a tropical agricultural soil

Analyzing the microbial community structure and functions become imperative for ecological processes. To understand the impact of spent engine oil (SEO) contamination on microbial community structure of an agricultural soil, soil microcosms designated 1S (agricultural soil) and AB1 (agricultural soil polluted with SEO) were set up. Metagenomic DNA extracted from the soil microcosms and sequenced using Miseq Illumina sequencing were analyzed for their taxonomic and functional properties. Taxonomic profiling of the two microcosms by MG-RAST revealed the dominance of Actinobacteria (23.36%) and Proteobacteria (52.46%) phyla in 1S and AB1 with preponderance of Streptomyces (12.83%) and Gemmatimonas (10.20%) in 1S and Geodermatophilus (26.24%), Burkholderia (15.40%), and Pseudomonas (12.72%) in AB1, respectively. Our results showed that soil microbial diversity significantly decreased in AB1. Further assignment of the metagenomic reads to MG-RAST, Cluster of Orthologous Groups (COG) of proteins, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), GhostKOALA, and NCBI's CDD hits revealed diverse metabolic potentials of the autochthonous microbial community. It also revealed the adaptation of the community to various environmental stressors such as hydrocarbon hydrophobicity, heavy metal toxicity, oxidative stress, nutrient starvation, and C/N/P imbalance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the effect of SEO perturbation on soil microbial communities through Illumina sequencing. The results indicated that SEO contamination significantly affects soil microbial community structure and functions leading to massive loss of nonhydrocarbon degrading indigenous microbiota and enrichment of hydrocarbonoclastic organisms such as members of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria.

Metabolism of waste engine oil by Pseudomonas species

Two bacterial strains phylogenetically identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains RM1 and SK1 displayed extensive degradation ability on waste engine oil (SAE 40W) in batch cultures. Spectrophotometric analysis revealed the presence of various heavy metals such as lead, chromium and nickel in the waste engine oil. The rate of degradation of waste engine oil by the isolates, for the first 12 days and the last 9 days were 66.3, 31.6 mg l⁻¹ day⁻¹  and 69.6, 40.0 mg l⁻¹ day⁻¹ for strains RM1 and SK1, respectively. Gas chromatographic (GC) analyses of residual waste engine oil, revealed that 66.58, 89.06 % and 63.40, 90.75 % of the initial concentration of the waste engine oil were degraded by strains RM1 and SK1 within 12 and 21 days. GC fingerprints of the waste engine oil after 12 days of incubation of strains RM1 and SK1 showed total disappearance of C₁₅, C₂₃, C₂₄, C₂₅ and C₂₆ hydrocarbon fractions as well as drastic reductions of C₁₃, C₁₄, C₁₆ and PAHs fractions such as C₁₉-anthracene and C₂₂-pyrene. At the end of 21 days incubation, total disappearance of C₁₇-pristane, C₂₂-pyrene, one of the C₁₉-anthracene and significant reduction of C₁₈-phytane (97.2 %, strain RM1; 95.1 %, strain SK1) fractions were observed. In addition, <10 % of Day 0 values of medium fraction ranges C₁₃, and C₁₆ were discernible after 21 days. This study has established the potentials of P. aeruginosa strains RM1 and SK1 in the degradation of aliphatic, aromatic and branched alkane components of waste engine oils.

Carbazole degradation in the soil microcosm by tropical bacterial strains

In a previous study, three bacterial strains isolated from tropical hydrocarbon-contaminated soils and phylogenetically identified as Achromobacter sp. strain SL1, Pseudomonas sp. strain SL4 and Microbacterium esteraromaticum strain SL6 displayed angular dioxygenation and mineralization of carbazole in batch cultures. In this study, the ability of these isolates to survive and enhance carbazole degradation in soil were tested in field-moist microcosms. Strain SL4 had the highest survival rate (1.8 x 10⁷ cfu/g) after 30 days of incubation in sterilized soil, while there was a decrease in population density in native (unsterilized) soil when compared with the initial population. Gas chromatographic analysis after 30 days of incubation showed that in sterilized soil amended with carbazole (100 mg/kg), 66.96, 82.15 and 68.54% were degraded by strains SL1, SL4 and SL6, respectively, with rates of degradation of 0.093, 0.114 and 0.095 mg kg⁻¹ h⁻¹. The combination of the three isolates as inoculum in sterilized soil degraded 87.13% carbazole at a rate of 0.121 mg kg⁻¹ h⁻¹. In native soil amended with carbazole (100 mg/kg), 91.64, 87.29 and 89.13% were degraded by strains SL1, SL4 and SL6 after 30 days of incubation, with rates of degradation of 0.127, 0.121 and 0.124 mg kg⁻¹ h⁻¹, respectively. This study successfully established the survivability (> 10⁶ cfu/g detected after 30 days) and carbazole-degrading ability of these bacterial strains in soil, and highlights the potential of these isolates as seed for the bioremediation of carbazole-impacted environments.

Carbazole angular dioxygenation and mineralization by bacteria isolated from hydrocarbon-contaminated tropical African soil

Four bacterial strains isolated from hydrocarbon-contaminated soils in Lagos, Nigeria, displayed extensive degradation abilities on carbazole, an N-heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Physicochemical analyses of the sampling sites (ACPP, MWO, NESU) indicate gross pollution of the soils with a high hydrocarbon content (157,067.9 mg/kg) and presence of heavy metals. Phylogenetic analysis of the four strains indicated that they were identified as Achromobacter sp. strain SL1, Pseudomonas sp. strain SL4, Microbacterium esteraromaticum strain SL6, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain BA. The rates of degradation of carbazole by the four isolates during 30 days of incubation were 0.057, 0.062, 0.036, and 0.050 mg L(-1) h(-1) for strains SL1, SL4, SL6, and BA. Gas chromatographic (GC) analyses of residual carbazole after 30 days of incubation revealed that 81.3, 85, 64.4, and 76 % of 50 mg l(-1) carbazole were degraded by strains SL1, SL4, SL6, and BA, respectively. GC-mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatographic analyses of the extracts from the growing and resting cells of strains SL1, SL4, and SL6 cultured on carbazole showed detection of anthranilic acid and catechol while these metabolites were not detected in strain BA under the same conditions. This study has established for the first time carbazole angular dioxygenation and mineralization by isolates from African environment.

Biodegradation of anthracene by a novel actinomycete, Microbacterium sp. isolated from tropical hydrocarbon-contaminated soil

A novel anthracene-degrading Gram-positive actinomycete, Microbacterium sp. strain SL10 was isolated from a hydrocarbon-contaminated soil at a mechanical engineering workshop in Lagos, Nigeria. The polluted soil had an unusually high total hydrocarbon content of 157 g/kg and presence of various heavy metals. The isolate tolerated salt concentration of more than 4%. It resisted cefotaxime, streptomycin and ciprofloxacin, but susceptible to meropenem, linezolid and vancomycin. The isolate exhibited growth rate and doubling time of 0.82 days(-1) and 0.84 days, respectively on anthracene. It degraded 57.5 and 90.12% of anthracene within 12 and 21 days, respectively while the rate of anthracene utilization by the isolate was 4.79 mg l(-1) d(-1). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of isolation and characterization of anthracene-degrading Microbacterium sp.