Microbial (Enzymatic) Degradation of Cyanide to Produce Pterins as Cofactors

Detoxification of tetracycline and synthetic dyes by a newly characterized Lentinula edodes laccase, and safety assessment using proteomic analysis

Fungal laccase has strong ability in detoxification of many environmental contaminants. A putative laccase gene, LeLac12, from Lentinula edodes was screened by secretome approach. LeLac12 was heterogeneously expressed and purified to characterize its enzymatic properties to evaluate its potential use in bioremediation. This study showed that the extracellular fungal laccase from L. edodes could effectively degrade tetracycline (TET) and the synthetic dye Acid Green 25 (AG). The growth inhibition of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis by TET revealed that the antimicrobial activity was significantly reduced after treatment with the laccase-HBT system. 16 transformation products of TET were identified by UPLC-MS-TOF during the laccase-HBT oxidation process. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis revealed that LeLac12 could completely mineralize ring-cleavage products. LeLac12 completely catalyzed 50 mg/L TET within 4 h by adding AG (200 mg/L), while the degradation of AG was above 96% even in the co-contamination system. Proteomic analysis revealed that central carbon metabolism, energy metabolism, and DNA replication/repair were affected by TET treatment and the latter system could contribute to the formation of multidrug-resistant strains. The results demonstrate that LeLac12 is an efficient and environmentally method for the removal of antibiotics and dyes in the complex polluted wastewater.

Treatment of thiocyanate-containing wastewater: a critical review of thiocyanate destruction in industrial effluents

Thiocyanate is a common pollutant in gold mine, textile, printing, dyeing, coking and other industries. Therefore, thiocyanate in industrial wastewater is an urgent problem to be solved. This paper reviews the chemical properties, applications, sources and toxicity of thiocyanate, as well as the various treatment methods for thiocyanate in wastewater and their advantages and disadvantages. It is emphasized that biological systems, ranging from laboratory to full-scale, are able to successfully remove thiocyanate from factories. Thiocyanate-degrading microorganisms degrade thiocyanate in autotrophic manner for energy, while other biodegrading microorganisms use thiocyanate as a carbon or nitrogen source, and the biochemical pathways and enzymes involved in thiocyanate metabolism by different bacteria are discussed in detail. In the future, degradation mechanisms should be investigated at the molecular level, with further research aiming to improve the biochemical understanding of thiocyanate metabolism and scaling up thiocyanate degradation technologies from the laboratory to a full-scale.

Molecular response of Anoxybacillus sp. PDR2 under azo dye stress: An integrated analysis of proteomics and metabolomics

Treating azo dye wastewater using thermophilic bacteria is considered a more efficient bioremediation strategy. In this study, a thermophilic bacterial strain, Anoxybacillus sp. PDR2, was regarded as the research target. This strain was characterized at different stages of azo dye degradation by using TMT quantitative proteomic and non-targeted metabolome technology. A total of 165 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) and 439 differentially metabolites (DMs) were detected in comparisons between bacteria with and without azo dye. It was found that Anoxybacillus sp. PDR2 can degrade azo dye Direct Black G (DBG) through extracellular electron transfer with glucose serving as electron donors. Most proteins related to carbohydrate metabolism, including acetoacetate synthase, and malate synthase G, were overexpressed to provide energy. The bacterium can also self-synthesize riboflavin as a redox mediator of in vitro electron transport. These results lay a theoretical basis for industrial bioremediation of azo dye wastewater.

Streptomyces: connecting red-nano and grey biotechnology fields

Anthropogenic activities are often related to the occurrence of simultaneous contaminations with heavy metals and toxic organic compounds. In addition, the increasing demand for food, clothing, and technology has increased the worldwide contamination level. Although it is not fully demonstrated, the high level of contamination in association with the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, led to the appearance of multi-resistant pathogenic microorganisms. Grey and red biotechnologies try to counteract the negative effects of pollution and antimicrobial resistance respectively. Streptomyces is well known in the field of biotechnology. In this review, we discussed the potential of these bacteria to deal with organic and inorganic pollutants and produce nanostructures with antimicrobial activity. To our knowledge, this is the first work in which a biotechnological bacterial genus such as Streptomyces is revised in two different fields of global concern, contamination, and multi-drugs resistant microorganisms.