Toxic effect and adaptation in Scenedesmus intermedius to anthropogenic chloramphenicol contamination: genetic versus physiological mechanisms to rapid acquisition of xenobiotic resistance

Mechanistic insights into the potential application of Scenedesmus strains towards the elimination of antibiotics from wastewater

Scenedesmus strains have been reported to have the potential to tolerate and bioremediate antibiotic pollutants through bioadsorption, bioaccumulation, and biodegradation mechanism from the wastewater medium. Hormesis effects have been observed in the Scenedesmus strains when exposed to different concentrations of antibiotic pollutants. Lower concentrations of antibiotic pollutants are known to trigger growth-stimulating effects by triggering adaptive responses such as increased metabolic activity and activating detoxifying mechanisms leading to the biotransformation pathway. The present review examines the existing body of information pertaining to biotransformation pathways tolerance, hormesis effects, and efficiency of Scenedesmus strains in removing various antibiotic pollutants. This review provides critical information on using Scenedesmus species to treat antibiotic-polluted wastewater by boosting growth and resilience tolerant doses and avoiding toxicity at higher doses.

Occurrence of antibiotics in waters, removal by microalgae-based systems, and their toxicological effects: A review

Global antibiotics consumption has been on the rise, leading to increased antibiotics release into the environment, which threatens public health by selecting for antibiotic resistant bacteria and resistance genes, and may endanger the entire ecosystem by impairing primary production. Conventional bacteria-based treatment methods are only moderately effective in antibiotics removal, while abiotic approaches such as advanced oxidation and adsorption are costly and energy/chemical intensive, and may cause secondary pollution. Considered as a promising alternative, microalgae-based technology requires no extra chemical addition, and can realize tremendous CO₂ mitigation accompanying growth related pollutants removal. Previous studies on microalgae-based antibiotics removal, however, focused more on the removal performances than on the removal mechanisms, and few studies have concerned the toxicity of antibiotics to microalgae during the treatment process. Yet understanding the removal mechanisms can be of great help for targeted microalgae-based antibiotics removal performances improvement. Moreover, most of the removal and toxicity studies were carried out using environment-irrelevant high concentrations of antibiotics, leading to reduced guidance for real-world situations. Integrating the two research fields can be helpful for both improving antibiotics removal and avoiding toxicological effects to primary producers by the residual pollutants. This study, therefore, aims to build a link connecting the occurrence of antibiotics in the aquatic environment, the removal of antibiotics by microalgae-based processes, and the toxicity of antibiotics to microalgae. Distribution of various categories of antibiotics in different water environments were summarized, together with the antibiotics removal mechanisms and performances in microalgae-based systems, and the toxicological mechanisms and toxicity of antibiotics to microalgae after either short-term or long-term exposure. Current research gaps and future prospects were also analyzed. The review could provide much valuable information to the related fields, and provoke interesting thoughts on integrating microalgae-based antibiotics removal research and toxicity research on the basis of environmentally relevant concentrations.

Biodegradation of sulfamethoxazole by microalgae-bacteria consortium in wastewater treatment plant effluents

Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) has been commonly detected in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents. SMX and other antibiotics can be considered as environmental contaminants of emerging concern. Due to their toxicity effects and their potential for the development of bacterial resistance their presence in aquatic compartment becomes a threat to human health. This study evaluated the bioremediation of SMX in WWTP effluents using a tertiary treatment composed by microalgae-bacteria consortium under low intensity artificial LED illumination, and also the assessment of sulfonamide resistance gene (sul1). The removal of SMX from WWTP effluents were 54.34 ± 2.35%, in which the microalgae-bacteria consortium improves the removal performance of SMX. The main process of SMX removal can be attributed to the symbiotic biodegradation by bacteria due to the increase of oxygen released by the microalgae photosynthetic process. Therefore, the microalgae-bacteria consortium used in this study, demonstrated to be a promising alternative for bioremediation of SMX, with potential for removal others contaminants from wastewater effluent. However, the residual SMX and the relative abundance of antibiotics resistance genes (ARG) found in this study suggest that SMX contributes to selective pressure for ARG maintenance and proliferation in WWTP effluent. Thus, further studies to removal ARG from WWTP effluent are needed.

Degradation of chloramphenicol by potassium ferrate (VI) oxidation: kinetics and products

The oxidation of chloramphenicol (CAP) by potassium ferrate (VI) in test solution was studied in this paper. A series of jar tests were performed at bench scale with pH of 5-9 and molar ratio [VI/CAP] of 16.3:1-81.6:1. Results showed that raising VI dose could improve the treatment performance and the influence of solution pH was significant. VI is more reactive in neutral conditions, presenting the highest removal efficiency of CAP. The rate law for the oxidation of CAP by VI was first order with respect to each reactant, yielding an overall second-order reaction. Furthermore, five oxidation products were observed during CAP oxidation by VI. Results revealed that VI attacked the amide group of CAP, leading to the cleavage of the group, while benzene ring remained intact.

Photosynthetic activity and protein overexpression found in Cr(III)-tolerant cells of the green algae Dictyosphaerium chlorelloides

Chromium is an important constituent in effluents obtained from chromium plating industries. Due to the highly toxic nature of Cr(VI), attention has been shifted to less hazardous Cr(III) electroplating processes. This study evaluated aquatic toxicity of Cr(III)-containing laboratory samples representative of effluents from chromium electroplating industries, on the photosynthetic activity exhibited by both Cr(III)-sensitive (Dc1M(wt)) and tolerant (Dc1M(Cr(III)R30)) Dictyosphaerium chlorelloides strains. Additionally, selected de novo-determined peptide sequences, obtained from Dc1M(Cr(III)R30), have been analyzed to evidence the possible Cr(III) toxic mechanism involved in the resistance of these cells to high Cr(III) levels in aquatic environments. Dc1M(Cr(III)R30) strain exhibited a gross photosynthetic balance of about five times lower than that exhibited by Dc1M(wt) strain, demonstrating that Dc1M(Cr(III)R30) has a photosynthetic yield significantly lower than Dc1M(wt). SDS-PAGE of Dc1M(Cr(III)R30) samples showed the presence of at least two protein bands (23.05 and 153.46 KDa, respectively) absent in wild-type strain samples. Although it has achieved a low coincidence between the lower molecular weight band and a GTPase identified from genome of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, none of de novo peptide sequences obtained showed a significant MS-BLAST score, so that further studies will be required.

Rapid adaptation of microalgae to bodies of water with extreme pollution from uranium mining: an explanation of how mesophilic organisms can rapidly colonise extremely toxic environments

Extreme environments may support communities of microalgae living at the limits of their tolerance. It is usually assumed that these extreme environments are inhabited by extremophile species. However, global anthropogenic environmental changes are generating new extreme environments, such as mining-effluent pools of residual waters from uranium mining with high U levels, acidity and radioactivity in Salamanca (Spain). Certain microalgal species have rapidly adapted to these extreme waters (uranium mining in this area began in 1960). Experiments have demonstrated that physiological acclimatisation would be unable to achieve adaptation. In contrast, rapid genetic adaptation was observed in waters ostensibly lethal to microalgae by means of rare spontaneous mutations that occurred prior to the exposure to effluent waters from uranium mining. However, adaptation to the most extreme conditions was only possible after recombination through sexual mating because adaptation requires more than one mutation. Microalgae living in extreme environments could be the descendants of pre-selective mutants that confer significant adaptive value to extreme contamination. These "lucky mutants" could allow for the evolutionary rescue of populations faced with rapid environmental change.

Wastewater generated during cleaning/washing procedures in a wood-floor industry: toxicity on the microalgae Desmodesmus subspicatus

In industries based on dry processes, such as wood floor and wood furniture manufacture, wastewater is mainly generated after cleaning of surfaces, storage tanks and machinery. Owing to the small volumes, onsite treatment options and potential environmental risks posed to aquatic ecosystems due to discharge of these wastewaters are seldom investigated. In the present study, the effects of cleaning wastewater streams generated at two wood floor production lines on Desmodesmus subspicatus were investigated. The microalgae was exposed to different wastewater concentrations (100, 50, 25, 12.5 and 6.25% v:v) and the algae growth evaluation was based on in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence, cell density, cell size (number of cells/colony) and cell ratio (length/width). Inhibitory effects of the tested wastewaters on the microalgae were positively related to concentration and negatively related to exposure time. The EC50,24 h of blade cleaning wastewater (BCW) and floor cleaning wastewater (FCW) were 3.36 and 5.87% (v:v), respectively. No negative effect on cell colony formation was caused by BCW, whereas an increase of 90% unicellular cells was observed in FCW concentrations below 50% (v:v). At the lowest concentration (3.13% v:v) where no growth inhibition was observed, both wastewater streams caused changes in cell dimensions by increasing cell length and width. To conclude, wastewaters generated during cleaning procedures in the wood floor industries can have severe environmental impacts on aquatic organisms, even after high dilution. Therefore, these wastewaters must be treated before being discharged into water bodies.

Adaptation of microalgae to a gradient of continuous petroleum contamination

In order to study adaptation of microalgae to petroleum contamination, we have examined an environmental stress gradient by crude oil contamination in the Arroyo Minero River (AMR), Argentina. Underground crude oil has constantly leaked out since 1915 as a consequence of test drilling for possible petroleum exploitation. Numerous microalgae species proliferated in AMR upstream of the crude oil spill. In contrast, only four microalgal species were detected in the crude oil spill area. Species richness increases again downstream. Microalgae biomass in the crude oil spill area is dominated by a mesophile species, Scenedesmus sp. Effects of oil samples from AMR spill on photosynthetic performance and growth were studied using laboratory cultures of two Scenedesmus sp. strains. One strain (Se-co) was isolated from the crude oil spill area. The other strain (Se-pr) was isolated from a pristine area without petroleum contamination. Crude oil has undetectable effects on Se-co strain. In contrast crude oil rapidly destroys Se-pr strain. However, Se-pr strain can adapt to low doses of petroleum (≤ 3% v/v total hydrocarbons/water) by means of physiological acclimatization. In contrast, only rare crude oil-resistant mutants are able to grow under high levels of crude oil (≥ 10% v/v total hydrocarbons/water). These crude oil-resistant mutants have arisen through rare spontaneous mutations that occur prior to crude oil exposure. Species richness in different areas of AMR is closely connected to the kind of mechanism (genetic adaptation vs. physiological acclimatization) that allows adaptation. Resistant-mutants are enough to assure the survival of microalgal species under catastrophic crude oil spill.

Microalgae response to petroleum spill: an experimental model analysing physiological and genetic response of Dunaliella tertiolecta (Chlorophyceae) to oil samples from the tanker Prestige

In November 2002, the oil tanker Prestige sank off the northwestern coast of Spain, spilling more than 50,000 tons of petroleum with disastrous ecological and economical consequences. In order to analyse the harmful consequences of the oil spill on marine microalgae, short- and long-term effects of oil samples from the Prestige spill were studied using laboratory cultures of Dunaliella tertiolecta (strain Dt1Lwt). Significant inhibition of photosynthesis (assessed by F(v)/F(m), ETR(max) and alpha estimations) was observed after only 1h of oil exposure with clear concentration dependency. Three days later, photosynthetic activity remained inhibited although cell survival was only slightly effected. In cultures exposed to the lowest oil concentration, mitotic rates and percentage of motile cells were 17-33% and 12-42% of the controls, respectively. After 1 month, neither dividing nor motile cells were observed at the highest oil concentrations. However, after further incubation, occasionally the growth of rare cells resistant to oil was found. A fluctuation analysis was carried out to distinguish between resistant cells arising from rare spontaneous mutations and resistant cells arising from physiological or other mechanisms of adaptation. The existence of rapid evolution as result of preselective mutations from petroleum sensitivity to petroleum resistance was observed. Resistant cells arose by rare spontaneous mutations prior to the addition of oil, with a mutation rate of 2.76x10(-5) oil-resistant mutants per cell division. Apparently, rare spontaneous preselective mutations are able to assure the survival of microalgae in oil-polluted environments.