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Qiao S, Huang W, Kuzma D, Kormendi A. Acesulfame and other artificial sweeteners in a wastewater treatment plant in Alberta, Canada: Occurrence, degradation, and emission. CHEMOSPHERE 2024; 356:141893. [PMID: 38582168 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Revised: 03/04/2024] [Accepted: 04/01/2024] [Indexed: 04/08/2024]
Abstract
Acesulfame (ACE), sucralose (SUC), cyclamate (CYC), and saccharin (SAC) are widely used artificial sweeteners that undergo negligible metabolism in the human body, and thus ubiquitously exist in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Due to their persistence in WWTPs, ACE and SUC are found in natural waters globally. Wastewater samples were collected from the primary influent, primary effluent, secondary effluent, and final effluent of a WWTP in Alberta, Canada between August 2022 and February 2023, and the artificial sweeteners concentrations were measured by LC-MS/MS. Using wastewater-based epidemiology, the daily per capita consumption of ACE in the studied wastewater treatment plant catchment was estimated to be the highest in the world. Similar to other studies, the removal efficiency in WWTP was high for SAC and CYC, but low or even negative for SUC. However, ACE removal remained surprisingly high (>96%), even in the cold Canadian winter months. This result may indicate a further adaptation of microorganisms capable of biodegrading ACE in WWTP. The estimated per capita discharge into the environment of ACE, CYC, and SAC is low in Alberta due to the prevalent utilization of secondary treatment throughout the province, but is 17.4-18.8 times higher in Canada, since only 70.3% of total discharged wastewater in Canada undergoes secondary treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuang Qiao
- Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada
| | - Wendy Huang
- Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada.
| | - Darina Kuzma
- Advancing Canadian Water Assets, University of Calgary, 3131 210 Ave SE, Calgary, Alberta, T0L 0X0, Canada
| | - Aleshia Kormendi
- Advancing Canadian Water Assets, University of Calgary, 3131 210 Ave SE, Calgary, Alberta, T0L 0X0, Canada
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2
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van Brenk B, Kleijburg FEL, Kemperman AJB, van der Meer WGJ, Wösten HAB. Enzymatic and non-enzymatic removal of organic micropollutants with spent mushroom substrate of Agaricus bisporus. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2024; 108:301. [PMID: 38639797 PMCID: PMC11031484 DOI: 10.1007/s00253-024-13132-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2023] [Revised: 03/22/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/20/2024]
Abstract
Water bodies are increasingly contaminated with a diversity of organic micropollutants (OMPs). This impacts the quality of ecosystems due to their recalcitrant nature. In this study, we assessed the removal of OMPs by spent mushroom substrate (SMS) of the white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) and by its aqueous tea extract. Removal of acesulfame K, antipyrine, bentazon, caffeine, carbamazepine, chloridazon, clofibric acid, and N, N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) by SMS and its tea was between 10 and 90% and 0-26%, respectively, in a 7-day period. Sorption to SMS particles was between 0 and 29%, which can thus not explain the removal difference between SMS and its tea, the latter lacking these particles. Carbamazepine was removed most efficiently by both SMS and its tea. Removal of OMPs (except caffeine) by SMS tea was not affected by heat treatment. By contrast, heat-treatment of SMS reduced OMP removal to < 10% except for carbamazepine with a removal of 90%. These results indicate that OMP removal by SMS and its tea is mediated by both enzymatic and non-enzymatic activities. The presence of copper, manganese, and iron (0.03, 0.88, and 0.33 µg L-1, respectively) as well as H2O2 (1.5 µM) in SMS tea indicated that the Fenton reaction represents (part of) the non-enzymatic activity. Indeed, the in vitro reconstituted Fenton reaction removed OMPs > 50% better than the teas. From these data it is concluded that spent mushroom substrate of the white button mushroom, which is widely available as a waste-stream, can be used to purify water from OMPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brigit van Brenk
- Microbiology, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CH, the Netherlands
| | - Fleur E L Kleijburg
- Microbiology, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CH, the Netherlands
| | - Antoine J B Kemperman
- Membrane Science and Technology cluster, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, Enschede, 7500 AE, the Netherlands
| | - Walter G J van der Meer
- Membrane Science and Technology cluster, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, Enschede, 7500 AE, the Netherlands
- Oasen, PO BOX 122, Gouda, 2800 AC, the Netherlands
| | - Han A B Wösten
- Microbiology, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CH, the Netherlands.
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Bonatelli ML, Rohwerder T, Popp D, Liu Y, Akay C, Schultz C, Liao KP, Ding C, Reemtsma T, Adrian L, Kleinsteuber S. Recently evolved combination of unique sulfatase and amidase genes enables bacterial degradation of the wastewater micropollutant acesulfame worldwide. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1223838. [PMID: 37577448 PMCID: PMC10413263 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1223838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Xenobiotics often challenge the principle of microbial infallibility. One example is acesulfame introduced in the 1980s as zero-calorie sweetener, which was recalcitrant in wastewater treatment plants until the early 2010s. Then, efficient removal has been reported with increasing frequency. By studying acesulfame metabolism in alphaproteobacterial degraders of the genera Bosea and Chelatococcus, we experimentally confirmed the previously postulated route of two subsequent hydrolysis steps via acetoacetamide-N-sulfonate (ANSA) to acetoacetate and sulfamate. Genome comparison of wildtype Bosea sp. 100-5 and an acesulfame degradation-defective mutant revealed the involvement of two plasmid-borne gene clusters. The acesulfame-hydrolyzing sulfatase is strictly manganese-dependent and belongs to the metallo beta-lactamase family. In all degraders analyzed, it is encoded on a highly conserved gene cluster embedded in a composite transposon. The ANSA amidase, on the other hand, is an amidase signature domain enzyme encoded in another gene cluster showing variable length among degrading strains. Transposition of the sulfatase gene cluster between chromosome and plasmid explains how the two catabolic gene clusters recently combined for the degradation of acesulfame. Searching available genomes and metagenomes for the two hydrolases and associated genes indicates that the acesulfame plasmid evolved and spread worldwide in short time. While the sulfatase is unprecedented and unique for acesulfame degraders, the amidase occurs in different genetic environments and likely evolved for the degradation of other substrates. Evolution of the acesulfame degradation pathway might have been supported by the presence of structurally related natural and anthropogenic compounds, such as aminoacyl sulfamate ribonucleotide or sulfonamide antibiotics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria L. Bonatelli
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Thore Rohwerder
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Denny Popp
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Yu Liu
- Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Caglar Akay
- Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Carolyn Schultz
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kuan-Po Liao
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Chang Ding
- Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Thorsten Reemtsma
- Department of Analytical Chemistry, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Analytical Chemistry, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Lorenz Adrian
- Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
- Chair for Geobiotechnology, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Sabine Kleinsteuber
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
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Rios-Miguel AB, Jhm van Bergen T, Zillien C, Mj Ragas A, van Zelm R, Sm Jetten M, Jan Hendriks A, Welte CU. Predicting and improving the microbial removal of organic micropollutants during wastewater treatment: A review. CHEMOSPHERE 2023; 333:138908. [PMID: 37187378 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Organic micropollutants (OMPs) consist of widely used chemicals such as pharmaceuticals and pesticides that can persist in surface and groundwaters at low concentrations (ng/L to μg/L) for a long time. The presence of OMPs in water can disrupt aquatic ecosystems and threaten the quality of drinking water sources. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) rely on microorganisms to remove major nutrients from water, but their effectiveness at removing OMPs varies. Low removal efficiency might be the result of low concentrations, inherent stable chemical structures of OMPs, or suboptimal conditions in WWTPs. In this review, we discuss these factors, with special emphasis on the ongoing adaptation of microorganisms to degrade OMPs. Finally, recommendations are drawn to improve the prediction of OMP removal in WWTPs and to optimize the design of new microbial treatment strategies. OMP removal seems to be concentration-, compound-, and process-dependent, which poses a great complexity to develop accurate prediction models and effective microbial processes targeting all OMPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana B Rios-Miguel
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
| | - Tamara Jhm van Bergen
- Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
| | - Caterina Zillien
- Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Ad Mj Ragas
- Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Rosalie van Zelm
- Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Mike Sm Jetten
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - A Jan Hendriks
- Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Cornelia U Welte
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
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Marazuela MA, Formentin G, Erlmeier K, Hofmann T. Acesulfame allows the tracing of multiple sources of wastewater and riverbank filtration. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2023; 323:121223. [PMID: 36754203 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Revised: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 02/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Aquifers providing drinking water are increasingly threatened by emerging contaminants due to wastewater inputs from multiple sources. These inputs have to be identified, differentiated, and characterized to allow an accurate risk assessment and thus ensure the safety of drinking water through appropriate management. We hypothesize, that in climates with seasonal temperature variations, the sweetener acesulfame potassium (ACE) provides new pathways to study wastewater inputs to aquifers. Specifically, this study investigates the temperature-driven seasonal oscillation of ACE to assess multiple sources of wastewater inputs at a riverbank filtration site. ACE concentrations in the river water varied from 0.2 to 1 μg L-1 in the cold season (T < 10 °C) to 0-0.1 μg L-1 in the warm season (T > 10 °C), due to temperature-dependent biodegradation during wastewater treatment. This oscillating signal could be traced throughout the aquifer over distances up to 3250 m from two different infiltration sources. A transient numerical model of groundwater flow and ACE transport was calibrated over hydraulic heads and ACE concentrations, allowing the accurate calculation of mixing ratios, travel times, and flow-path directions for each of the two infiltration sources. The calculated travel time from the distant infiltration source was of 67 days, while that from the near source was of 20 days. The difference in travel times leads to different potential degradation of contaminants flowing into the aquifer from the river, thus demonstrating the importance of individually assessing the locations of riverbank infiltration. The calibrated ACE transport model allowed calculating transient mixing ratios, which confirmed the impact of river stage and groundwater levels on the mixing ratio of the original groundwater and the bank filtrate. Therefore, continuous monitoring of ACE concentrations can help to optimize the management of the water works with the aim to avoid collection of water with very short travel times, which has important regulative aspects. Our findings demonstrate the suitability of ACE as a transient tracer for identifying multiple sources of wastewater, including riverbank filtration sites affected by wastewater treatment plant effluents. ACE seasonal oscillation tracking thus provides a new tool to be used in climates with pronounced seasonal temperature variations to assess the origins of contamination in aquifers, with time and cost advantages over multi-tracer approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miguel Angel Marazuela
- Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Department of Environmental Geosciences, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
| | - Giovanni Formentin
- Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Department of Environmental Geosciences, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090, Vienna, Austria; HPC Italia Srl, Via Francesco Ferrucci 17/A, 20145, Milano, Italy
| | - Klaus Erlmeier
- Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Department of Environmental Geosciences, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Thilo Hofmann
- Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Department of Environmental Geosciences, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
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Marazuela MA, Formentin G, Erlmeier K, Hofmann T. Seasonal biodegradation of the artificial sweetener acesulfame enhances its use as a transient wastewater tracer. WATER RESEARCH 2023; 232:119670. [PMID: 36731204 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.119670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2022] [Revised: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The persistence of the artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium (ACE) during wastewater treatment and subsequently in the aquatic environment has made it a widely used tracer of wastewater inputs to both surface water and groundwater. However, the recently observed biodegradation of ACE during wastewater treatment has questioned the validity of this application. In this study, we assessed the use of ACE not only as a marker of wastewater, but also as a transient wastewater tracer that allows both the calculation of mixing ratios and travel times through the aquifer as well as the calibration of transient groundwater flow and mass transport models. Our analysis was based on data obtained in a nearly 8-year river water and groundwater sampling campaign along a confirmed wastewater-receiving riverbank filtration site located close to a drinking water supply system. We provide evidence that temperature controls ACE concentration and thus its seasonal oscillation. River water data showed that ACE loads decreased from 1.5-4 mg·s-1 in the cold season (December to June; T<10 °C) to 0-0.5 mg·s-1 in the warm season (July to November; T>10 °C). This seasonal variability of >600% was detectable in the aquifer and preserved >3 km, with ACE concentrations oscillating between <LOQ in the warm season up to 1 μg·L-1 in the cold season. The large seasonal variation in ACE concentrations during wastewater treatment, compared to the other sweeteners (sucralose, cyclamate, and saccharin) and chloride enables its use as a transient tracer of wastewater inflows and riverbank filtration. In addition, the arrival time of the ACE concentration peak can be used to estimate groundwater flow velocity and mixing ratios, thereby demonstrating its potential in the calibration of groundwater numerical models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miguel Angel Marazuela
- Department of Environmental Geosciences, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2 UZAII, Vienna 1090, Austria.
| | - Giovanni Formentin
- Department of Environmental Geosciences, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2 UZAII, Vienna 1090, Austria; HPC Italia Srl, via Francesco Ferrucci 17/A, Milano 20145, Italy
| | - Klaus Erlmeier
- Department of Environmental Geosciences, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2 UZAII, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Thilo Hofmann
- Department of Environmental Geosciences, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2 UZAII, Vienna 1090, Austria.
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Castronovo S, Helmholz L, Wolff D, Poulsen JS, Nielsen JL, Ternes TA, Schmidt TC, Wick A. Protein fractionation and shotgun proteomics analysis of enriched bacterial cultures shed new light on the enzymatically catalyzed degradation of acesulfame. WATER RESEARCH 2023; 230:119535. [PMID: 36610183 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.119535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2022] [Revised: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/25/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The removal of organic micropollutants in municipal wastewater treatment is an extensively studied field of research, but the underlying enzymatic processes have only been elucidated to a small extent so far. In order to shed more light on the enzymatic degradation of the artificial sweetener acesulfame (ACE) in this context, we enriched two bacterial taxa which were not yet described to be involved in the degradation of ACE, an unknown Chelatococcus species and Ensifer adhaerens, by incubating activated sludge in chemically defined media containing ACE as sole carbon source. Cell-free lysates were extracted, spiked with ACE and analyzed via target LC-MS/MS, demonstrating for the first time enzymatically catalyzed ACE degradation outside of living cells. Fractionation of the lysate via two-dimensional fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) succeeded in a partial separation of the enzymes catalyzing the initial transformation reaction of ACE from those catalyzing the further transformation pathway. Thereby, an accumulation of the intermediate transformation product acetoacetamide-n-sulfonic acid (ANSA) in the ACE-degrading fractions was achieved, providing first quantitative evidence that the cleavage of the sulfuric ester moiety of ACE is the initial transformation step. The metaproteome of the enrichments was analyzed in the FPLC fractions and in the unfractionated lysate, using shotgun proteomics via UHPLC-HRMS/MS and label-free quantification. The comparison of protein abundances in the FPLC fractions to the corresponding ACE degradation rates revealed a metallo-β-lactamase fold metallo-hydrolase as most probable candidate for the enzyme catalyzing the initial transformation from ACE to ANSA. This enzyme was by far the most abundant of all detected proteins and amounted to a relative protein abundance of 91% in the most active fraction after the second fractionation step. Moreover, the analysis of the unfractionated lysate resulted in a list of further proteins possibly involved in the transformation of ACE, most striking a highly abundant amidase likely catalyzing the further transformation of ANSA, and an ABC transporter substrate-binding protein that may be involved in the uptake of ACE into the cell.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandro Castronovo
- Federal Institute of Hydrology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, 56068 Koblenz, Germany; Instrumental Analytical Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141 Essen, Germany.
| | - Lissa Helmholz
- Federal Institute of Hydrology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, 56068 Koblenz, Germany
| | - David Wolff
- Federal Institute of Hydrology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, 56068 Koblenz, Germany
| | | | - Jeppe Lund Nielsen
- Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, Denmark
| | - Thomas A Ternes
- Federal Institute of Hydrology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, 56068 Koblenz, Germany
| | - Torsten C Schmidt
- Instrumental Analytical Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141 Essen, Germany; Centre for Water and Environmental Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 2, 45141 Essen, Germany
| | - Arne Wick
- Federal Institute of Hydrology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, 56068 Koblenz, Germany
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Li Z, Gao J, Zhao Y, Wang Z, Cui Y, Li D, Guo Y, Wu Z, Zeng L. Different acesulfame potassium fate and antibiotic resistance propagation pattern in nitrifying and denitrifying sludge systems. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 856:159238. [PMID: 36208732 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2022] [Revised: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 10/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Acesulfame potassium (ACE-K) is a widely utilized sugar substitute with increasing demand, which is frequently detected in various environmental matrix due to recalcitrance. However, a general consensus on the contribution of nitrifying and denitrifying process to ACE-K removal is lacking. Therefore, ACE-K removal, its effects on antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) propagation and microbial community in nitrifying sequencing batch reactor (N-SBR) and denitrifying sequencing batch reactor (D-SBR) inoculated with the identical activated sludge were investigated. In this study, ACE-K can be eliminated in N-SBR with satisfying removal efficiency (96.76 ± 8.33 %) after 13 d acclimation, while it remained persistent (average ACE-K removal efficiency of 2.24 ± 1.86 %) in D-SBR during 84 d exposure. Moreover, ACE-K hardly affected the performances of these two types of reactors and had little impact on nitrifying and denitrifying functional genes. However, initial contact with ACE-K would increase ARGs abundance, network analysis showed functional bacteria in each reactor were possible ARGs hosts. Potential ACE-K degrading genera Chelatococcus, Bosea and Aquamicrobium were found in both reactors. LefSe analysis showed that Phyllobacteriaceae containing Aquamicrobium genus was a differentially enriched family in N-SBR. This research might provide a perspective for better understanding factor affecting ACE-K fate in wastewater treatment process and its ecological risks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziqiao Li
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
| | - Jingfeng Gao
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
| | - Yifan Zhao
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
| | - Zhiqi Wang
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
| | - Yingchao Cui
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
| | - Dingchang Li
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
| | - Yi Guo
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
| | - Zejie Wu
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
| | - Liqin Zeng
- National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
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Davenport R, Curtis‐Jackson P, Dalkmann P, Davies J, Fenner K, Hand L, McDonough K, Ott A, Ortega‐Calvo JJ, Parsons JR, Schäffer A, Sweetlove C, Trapp S, Wang N, Redman A. Scientific concepts and methods for moving persistence assessments into the 21st century. INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT 2022; 18:1454-1487. [PMID: 34989108 PMCID: PMC9790601 DOI: 10.1002/ieam.4575] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2021] [Revised: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
The evaluation of a chemical substance's persistence is key to understanding its environmental fate, exposure concentration, and, ultimately, environmental risk. Traditional biodegradation test methods were developed many years ago for soluble, nonvolatile, single-constituent test substances, which do not represent the wide range of manufactured chemical substances. In addition, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) screening and simulation test methods do not fully reflect the environmental conditions into which substances are released and, therefore, estimates of chemical degradation half-lives can be very uncertain and may misrepresent real environmental processes. In this paper, we address the challenges and limitations facing current test methods and the scientific advances that are helping to both understand and provide solutions to them. Some of these advancements include the following: (1) robust methods that provide a deeper understanding of microbial composition, diversity, and abundance to ensure consistency and/or interpret variability between tests; (2) benchmarking tools and reference substances that aid in persistence evaluations through comparison against substances with well-quantified degradation profiles; (3) analytical methods that allow quantification for parent and metabolites at environmentally relevant concentrations, and inform on test substance bioavailability, biochemical pathways, rates of primary versus overall degradation, and rates of metabolite formation and decay; (4) modeling tools that predict the likelihood of microbial biotransformation, as well as biochemical pathways; and (5) modeling approaches that allow for derivation of more generally applicable biotransformation rate constants, by accounting for physical and/or chemical processes and test system design when evaluating test data. We also identify that, while such advancements could improve the certainty and accuracy of persistence assessments, the mechanisms and processes by which they are translated into regulatory practice and development of new OECD test guidelines need improving and accelerating. Where uncertainty remains, holistic weight of evidence approaches may be required to accurately assess the persistence of chemicals. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1454-1487. © 2022 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Philipp Dalkmann
- Bayer AG, Crop Science Division, Environmental SafetyMonheimGermany
| | | | - Kathrin Fenner
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and TechnologyDübendorfSwitzerland
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of ZürichZürichSwitzerland
| | - Laurence Hand
- Syngenta, Product Safety, Jealott's Hill International Research CentreBracknellUK
| | | | - Amelie Ott
- School of EngineeringNewcastle UniversityNewcastle upon TyneUK
- European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC)BrusselsBelgium
| | - Jose Julio Ortega‐Calvo
- Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de SevillaConsejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSevillaSpain
| | - John R. Parsons
- Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem DynamicsUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | - Andreas Schäffer
- RWTH Aachen University, Institute for Environmental ResearchAachenGermany
| | - Cyril Sweetlove
- L'Oréal Research & InnovationEnvironmental Research DepartmentAulnay‐sous‐BoisFrance
| | - Stefan Trapp
- Department of Environmental EngineeringTechnical University of DenmarkBygningstorvetLyngbyDenmark
| | - Neil Wang
- Total Marketing & ServicesParis la DéfenseFrance
| | - Aaron Redman
- ExxonMobil Petroleum and ChemicalMachelenBelgium
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10
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Huang Y, Yu Z, Liu L, Che Y, Zhang T. Acesulfame Anoxic Biodegradation Coupled to Nitrate Reduction by Enriched Consortia and Isolated Shinella spp. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2022; 56:13096-13106. [PMID: 36040144 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c03656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Acesulfame (ACE) is considered to be an emerging pollutant associated with growing concerns. Although aerobic biodegradation of ACE has been observed in wastewater treatment plants worldwide and verified in pure cultures, limited information is available on ACE biodegradation under anoxic conditions, which are ubiquitous in natural environments. Here, we found that ACE could be mineralized completely via a process coupled with nitrate reduction by enriched consortia, with the highest degradation rate of 9.95 mg ACE/g VSS·h-1. Meanwhile, three novel ACE-degrading strains affiliated with Shinella were isolated, examined, and sequenced, revealing that the isolates could utilize ACE as the sole carbon source under both aerobic and anoxic conditions, with maximum degradation rates of 30.3 mg ACE/g VSS·h-1 and 8.92 mg ACE/g VSS·h-1, respectively. Additionally, the biodegradation of ACE was suspected to be a plasmid-mediated process based on comparative genomic analysis. In ACE-degrading consortia, 83 near-complete metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) were obtained via Illumina and Nanopore sequencing, showing that Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla. Moreover, nine MAGs affiliated with Hyphomicrobiales were proposed to be the major ACE degraders in the enrichments. This study demonstrated that ACE could be degraded under anoxic conditions, providing novel insights into ACE biodegradation in the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Huang
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
| | - Zhong Yu
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Lei Liu
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
| | - You Che
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
| | - Tong Zhang
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
- School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Institute of Chemical Biology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518055, China
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11
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Desiante WL, Carles L, Wullschleger S, Joss A, Stamm C, Fenner K. Wastewater microorganisms impact the micropollutant biotransformation potential of natural stream biofilms. WATER RESEARCH 2022; 217:118413. [PMID: 35504081 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2021] [Revised: 03/31/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Biotransformation is the most important process removing manmade chemicals from the environment, yet mechanisms governing this essential ecosystem function are underexplored. To understand these mechanisms, we conducted experiments in flow-through systems, by colonizing stream biofilms under different conditions of mixing river water with treated (and ultrafiltered) wastewater. We performed biotransformation experiments with those biofilms, using a set of 75 micropollutants, and could disentangle potential mechanisms determining the biotransformation potential of stream biofilms. We showed that the increased biotransformation potential downstream of wastewater treatment plants that we observed for specific micropollutants contained in household wastewaters (downstream effect) is caused by microorganisms released with the treated effluent, rather than by the in-stream exposure to those micropollutants. Complementary data from 16S rRNA amplicon-sequencing revealed 146 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) that followed the observed biotransformation patterns. Our results align with findings for community tolerance, and provide clear experimental evidence that microorganisms released with treated wastewater integrate into downstream biofilms and impact crucial ecosystem functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Werner L Desiante
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland; Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Louis Carles
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Simon Wullschleger
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Adriano Joss
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Christian Stamm
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland; Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Kathrin Fenner
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland; Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland; Department of Chemistry, University of Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
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12
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Seller C, Özel Duygan BD, Honti M, Fenner K. Biotransformation of Chemicals at the Water–Sediment Interface─Toward a Robust Simulation Study Setup. ACS ENVIRONMENTAL AU 2021; 1:46-57. [PMID: 37101935 PMCID: PMC10114792 DOI: 10.1021/acsenvironau.1c00006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Studying aquatic biotransformation of chemicals in laboratory experiments, i.e., OECD 308 and OECD 309 studies, is required by international regulatory frameworks to prevent the release of persistent chemicals into natural water bodies. Here, we aimed to address several previously described shortcomings of OECD 308/309 studies regarding their variable outcomes and questionable environmental relevance by broadly testing and characterizing a modified biotransformation test system in which an aerated water column covers a thin sediment layer. Compared to standard OECD 308/309 studies, the modified system showed little inter-replicate variability, improved observability of biotransformation, and consistency with first-order biotransformation kinetics for the majority of 43 test compounds, including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and artificial sweeteners. To elucidate the factors underlying the decreased inter-replicate variability compared to OECD 309 outcomes, we used multidimensional flow cytometry data and a machine learning-based cell type assignment pipeline to study cell densities and cell type diversities in the sediment and water compartments. Our here presented data on cell type composition in both water and sediment allows, for the first time, to study the behavior of microbial test communities throughout different biotransformation simulation studies. We found that sediment-associated microbial communities were generally more stable throughout the experiments and exhibited higher cell type diversity than the water column-associated communities. Consistently, our data indicate that aquatic biotransformation of chemicals can be most robustly studied in test systems providing a sufficient amount of sediment-borne biomass. While these findings favor OECD 308-type systems over OECD 309-type systems to study biotransformation at the water-sediment interface, our results suggest that the former should be modified toward lower sediment-water ratios to improve observability and interpretability of biotransformation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolin Seller
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
- Department of Chemistry, University of Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Birge D. Özel Duygan
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
- Institute of Microbiology, CHUV, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Mark Honti
- MTA-BME Water Research Group, 1111 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Kathrin Fenner
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
- Department of Chemistry, University of Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland
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13
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Huang Y, Deng Y, Law JCF, Yang Y, Ding J, Leung KSY, Zhang T. Acesulfame aerobic biodegradation by enriched consortia and Chelatococcus spp.: Kinetics, transformation products, and genomic characterization. WATER RESEARCH 2021; 202:117454. [PMID: 34332189 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 07/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The artificial sweetener Acesulfame (ACE) has been frequently detected in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and is regarded as an emerging pollutant due to its low biodegradability. However, recent observations of ACE biodegradation in WWTPs have stimulated interest in the ACE-degrading bacteria and mineralization pathways. In this study, next-generation sequencing methods, Illumina and Nanopore sequencing, were combined to explore the ACE-degrading communities enriched from the activated sludge of six municipal wastewater treatment plants. Metagenomic investigations indicated that all enrichments were similarly dominated by the phyla Proteobacteria and Planctomycetes. Notably, at the species level, four metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) were shared by six enriched communities with considerable abundances, indicating that they may be responsible for ACE biodegradation in the enrichments. Besides, two ACE-degrading pure strains, affiliated to the genus Chelatococcus, were isolated from the enrichment. The genomic analysis showed that these two isolates were the new species that were genetically distinct from their relatives. Two type strains, Chelatococcus asaccharovorans DSM 6462 and Chelatococcus composti DSM 101465, could not degrade ACE, implying that the ACE-degrading capability was not shared among the different species in the genus Chelatococcus. The results of the degradation experiment showed that the two isolates could use ACE as the sole carbon source and mineralize ~90% of the total organic carbon. Three biotransformation products (TP96, TP180B, and TP182B) were demonstrated by UPLC-QTOF-MS. The results of this study provide valuable insights into ACE biodegradation and its biotransformation products.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Huang
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
| | - Yu Deng
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
| | - Japhet Cheuk-Fung Law
- Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Yu Yang
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
| | - Jiahui Ding
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
| | - Kelvin Sze-Yin Leung
- Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Tong Zhang
- Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
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14
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Rios‐Miguel AB, Jetten MSM, Welte CU. Effect of concentration and hydraulic reaction time on the removal of pharmaceutical compounds in a membrane bioreactor inoculated with activated sludge. Microb Biotechnol 2021; 14:1707-1721. [PMID: 34132479 PMCID: PMC8313272 DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.13837] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2021] [Revised: 04/16/2021] [Accepted: 05/10/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Pharmaceuticals are often not fully removed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and are thus being detected at trace levels in water bodies all over the world posing a risk to numerous organisms. These organic micropollutants (OMPs) reach WWTPs at concentrations sometimes too low to serve as growth substrate for microorganisms; thus, co-metabolism is thought to be the main conversion mechanism. In this study, the microbial removal of six pharmaceuticals was investigated in a membrane bioreactor at increasing concentrations (4-800 nM) of the compounds and using three different hydraulic retention times (HRT; 1, 3.5 and 5 days). The bioreactor was inoculated with activated sludge from a municipal WWTP and fed with ammonium, acetate and methanol as main growth substrates to mimic co-metabolism. Each pharmaceutical had a different average removal efficiency: acetaminophen (100%) > fluoxetine (50%) > metoprolol (25%) > diclofenac (20%) > metformin (15%) > carbamazepine (10%). Higher pharmaceutical influent concentrations proportionally increased the removal rate of each compound, but surprisingly not the removal percentage. Furthermore, only metformin removal improved to 80-100% when HRT or biomass concentration was increased. Microbial community changes were followed with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing in response to the increment of pharmaceutical concentration: Nitrospirae and Planctomycetes 16S rRNA relative gene abundance decreased, whereas Acidobacteria and Bacteroidetes increased. Remarkably, the Dokdonella genus, previously implicated in acetaminophen metabolism, showed a 30-fold increase in abundance at the highest concentration of pharmaceuticals applied. Taken together, these results suggest that the incomplete removal of most pharmaceutical compounds in WWTPs is dependent on neither concentration nor reaction time. Accordingly, we propose a chemical equilibrium or a growth substrate limitation as the responsible mechanisms of the incomplete removal. Finally, Dokdonella could be the main acetaminophen degrader under activated sludge conditions, and non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals might still be toxic to relevant WWTP bacteria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana B. Rios‐Miguel
- Department of MicrobiologyInstitute for Water and Wetland ResearchRadboud UniversityHeyendaalseweg 135Nijmegen6525 AJThe Netherlands
| | - Mike S. M. Jetten
- Department of MicrobiologyInstitute for Water and Wetland ResearchRadboud UniversityHeyendaalseweg 135Nijmegen6525 AJThe Netherlands
- Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic MicrobiologyRadboud UniversityHeyendaalseweg 135Nijmegen6525 AJThe Netherlands
| | - Cornelia U. Welte
- Department of MicrobiologyInstitute for Water and Wetland ResearchRadboud UniversityHeyendaalseweg 135Nijmegen6525 AJThe Netherlands
- Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic MicrobiologyRadboud UniversityHeyendaalseweg 135Nijmegen6525 AJThe Netherlands
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15
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Naik AQ, Zafar T, Shrivastava VK. Environmental Impact of the Presence, Distribution, and Use of Artificial Sweeteners as Emerging Sources of Pollution. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 2021:6624569. [PMID: 33936216 PMCID: PMC8060115 DOI: 10.1155/2021/6624569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2020] [Revised: 03/06/2021] [Accepted: 03/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Artificial sweeteners are posing a new threat to the environment. The water ecosystem is the primary recipient of these emerging contaminants. Once ingested, sufficient amount of these artificial sweeteners escape unchanged from the human body and are added to the environment. However, some are added in the form of their breakdown products through excretion. Artificial sweeteners are resistant to wastewater treatment processes and are therefore continuously introduced into the water environments. However, the environmental behavior, fate, and long-term ecotoxicological contributions of artificial sweeteners in our water resources still remain largely unknown. Some artificial sweeteners like saccharin are used as a food additive in animal feeds. It also forms the degradation product of the sulfonylurea herbicides. All artificial sweeteners enter into the wastewater treatment plants from the industries and households. From the effluents, they finally reside into the receiving environmental bodies including wastewaters, groundwaters, and surface waters. The global production of these sweeteners is several hundred tons annually and is continuously being added into the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ab Qayoom Naik
- Laboratory of Endocrinology, Department of Biosciences, Barkatullah University, Bhopal 462026, MP, India
| | - Tabassum Zafar
- Laboratory of Endocrinology, Department of Biosciences, Barkatullah University, Bhopal 462026, MP, India
| | - Vinoy Kumar Shrivastava
- Laboratory of Endocrinology, Department of Biosciences, Barkatullah University, Bhopal 462026, MP, India
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16
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Rios Miguel AB, Jetten MS, Welte CU. The role of mobile genetic elements in organic micropollutant degradation during biological wastewater treatment. WATER RESEARCH X 2020; 9:100065. [PMID: 32984801 PMCID: PMC7494797 DOI: 10.1016/j.wroa.2020.100065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Revised: 08/19/2020] [Accepted: 08/28/2020] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are crucial for producing clean effluents from polluting sources such as hospitals, industries, and municipalities. In recent decades, many new organic compounds have ended up in surface waters in concentrations that, while very low, cause (chronic) toxicity to countless organisms. These organic micropollutants (OMPs) are usually quite recalcitrant and not sufficiently removed during wastewater treatment. Microbial degradation plays a pivotal role in OMP conversion. Microorganisms can adapt their metabolism to the use of novel molecules via mutations and rearrangements of existing genes in new clusters. Many catabolic genes have been found adjacent to mobile genetic elements (MGEs), which provide a stable scaffold to host new catabolic pathways and spread these genes in the microbial community. These mobile systems could be engineered to enhance OMP degradation in WWTPs, and this review aims to summarize and better understand the role that MGEs might play in the degradation and wastewater treatment process. Available data about the presence of catabolic MGEs in WWTPs are reviewed, and current methods used to identify and measure MGEs in environmental samples are critically evaluated. Finally, examples of how these MGEs could be used to improve micropollutant degradation in WWTPs are outlined. In the near future, advances in the use of MGEs will hopefully enable us to apply selective augmentation strategies to improve OMP conversion in WWTPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana B. Rios Miguel
- Department of Microbiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525, AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Mike S.M. Jetten
- Department of Microbiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525, AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525, AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Cornelia U. Welte
- Department of Microbiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525, AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525, AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands
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17
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Coll C, Bier R, Li Z, Langenheder S, Gorokhova E, Sobek A. Association between Aquatic Micropollutant Dissipation and River Sediment Bacterial Communities. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2020; 54:14380-14392. [PMID: 33104348 PMCID: PMC7676288 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c04393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Assessment of micropollutant biodegradation is essential to determine the persistence of potentially hazardous chemicals in aquatic ecosystems. We studied the dissipation half-lives of 10 micropollutants in sediment-water incubations (based on the OECD 308 standard) with sediment from two European rivers sampled upstream and downstream of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharge. Dissipation half-lives (DT50s) were highly variable between the tested compounds, ranging from 1.5 to 772 days. Sediment from one river sampled downstream from the WWTP showed the fastest dissipation of all micropollutants after sediment RNA normalization. By characterizing sediment bacteria using 16S rRNA sequences, bacterial community composition of a sediment was associated with its capacity for dissipating micropollutants. Bacterial amplicon sequence variants of the genera Ralstonia, Pseudomonas, Hyphomicrobium, and Novosphingobium, which are known degraders of contaminants, were significantly more abundant in the sediment incubations where fast dissipation was observed. Our study illuminates the limitations of the OECD 308 standard to account for variation of dissipation rates of micropollutants due to differences in bacterial community composition. This limitation is problematic particularly for those compounds with DT50s close to regulatory persistence criteria. Thus, it is essential to consider bacterial community composition as a source of variability in regulatory biodegradation and persistence assessments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Coll
- Department
of Environmental Science (ACES), Stockholm
University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic
Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Raven Bier
- Department
of Ecology and Genetics/Limnology, Uppsala
University, Norbyvägen 18D, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
- Stroud Water Research Center, AvondalePennsylvania, 19311, United States
| | - Zhe Li
- Department
of Environmental Science (ACES), Stockholm
University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Silke Langenheder
- Department
of Ecology and Genetics/Limnology, Uppsala
University, Norbyvägen 18D, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Elena Gorokhova
- Department
of Environmental Science (ACES), Stockholm
University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Anna Sobek
- Department
of Environmental Science (ACES), Stockholm
University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
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18
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Van Stempvoort DR, Brown SJ, Spoelstra J, Garda D, Robertson WD, Smyth SA. Variable persistence of artificial sweeteners during wastewater treatment: Implications for future use as tracers. WATER RESEARCH 2020; 184:116124. [PMID: 32755735 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.116124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Revised: 06/25/2020] [Accepted: 06/27/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
For more than a decade the artificial sweeteners acesulfame (ACE) and sucralose (SUC) have been applied as tracers of the input of wastewater to environmental waters. Recently concerns have been raised that degradation of ACE during treatment may hinder or restrict its use as a wastewater tracer. In this study the value of ACE and SUC as tracers was reassessed based on samples of wastewater at 12 municipal wastewater treatment (MWWT) plants and from 7 septic systems and associated septic plumes in groundwater. The results indicated stability of SUC during MWWT at most plants, and variable removal of both sweeteners during some MWWT and in the septic wastewater systems. However, the residual concentrations of ACE and SUC in municipal effluent and in septic plumes indicate that both sweeteners remain valuable wastewater tracers. The mass ratio SUC/ACE was found to be a useful parameter for examining the relative persistence of these sweeteners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dale R Van Stempvoort
- Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario, L7S 1A1, Canada.
| | - Susan J Brown
- Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario, L7S 1A1, Canada
| | - John Spoelstra
- Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario, L7S 1A1, Canada; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Dorothy Garda
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - William D Robertson
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Shirley Anne Smyth
- Science and Risk Assessment Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario, L7S 1A1, Canada
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19
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Belton K, Schaefer E, Guiney PD. A Review of the Environmental Fate and Effects of Acesulfame-Potassium. INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT 2020; 16:421-437. [PMID: 32065497 PMCID: PMC7318193 DOI: 10.1002/ieam.4248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2019] [Revised: 11/12/2019] [Accepted: 02/10/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The use of low and no calorie sweeteners (LNCSs) has increased substantially the past several decades. Their high solubility in water, low absorption to soils, and reliable analytical methods facilitate their detection in wastewater and surface waters. Low and no calorie sweeteners are widely used in food and beverage products around the world, have been approved as food additives, and are considered safe for human consumption by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and other regulatory authorities. Concerns have been raised, however, regarding their growing presence and potential aquatic toxicity. Recent studies have provided new empirical environmental monitoring, environmental fate, and ecotoxicity on acesulfame potassium (ACE-K). Acesulfame potassium is an important high-production LNCS, widely detected in the environment and generally reported to be environmentally persistent. Acesulfame-potassium was selected for this environmental fate and effects review to determine its comparative risk to aquatic organisms. The biodegradation of ACE-K is predicted to be low, based on available quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models, and this has been confirmed by several investigations, mostly published prior to 2014. More recently, there appears to be an interesting paradigm shift with several reports of the enhanced ability of wastewater treatment plants to biodegrade ACE-K. Some studies report that ACE-K can be photodegraded into potentially toxic breakdown products, whereas other data indicate that this may not be the case. A robust set of acute and chronic ecotoxicity studies in fish, invertebrates, and freshwater plants provided critical data on ACE-K's aquatic toxicity. Acesulfame-potassium concentrations in wastewater and surface water are generally in the lower parts per billion (ppb) range, whereas concentrations in sludge and groundwater are much lower (parts per trillion [ppt]). This preliminary environmental risk assessment establishes that ACE-K has high margins of safety (MOSs) and presents a negligible risk to the aquatic environment based on a collation of extensive ACE-K environmental monitoring, conservative predicted environmental concentration (PEC) and predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) estimates, and prudent probabilistic exposure modeling. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:421-437. © 2020 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).
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Affiliation(s)
- Kerry Belton
- Grocery Manufacturers AssociationArlingtonVirginiaUSA
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20
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Li D, Yao Y, Sun H, Wang Y, Pu J, Calderón R, Alder AC, Kannan K. Artificial Sweeteners in Pig Feed: A Worldwide Survey and Case Study in Pig Farms in Tianjin, China. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2020; 54:4059-4067. [PMID: 32122124 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b06853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Some artificial sweeteners (ASs) are used in pig feeds, although little is known on this regard. An investigation was conducted by determining seven common ASs in pig feed, manure, wastewater, compost, and soil from 16 pig farms in Tianjin, China. Saccharin (SAC) was predominant in feed (1.41-326 mg/kg) and manure samples (1.06-401 mg/kg). The annual mass loads of ASs in pig feeds were estimated at 5.69-119, 4.92-149, and 1.29-35 kg per 103 piglets, hogs, and sows, respectively. The annual emission of ASs via biowaste (i.e., manure) was estimated at 3.58-85.2, 0.04-26.2, and 0.08-9.97 kg per 103 capita for the three dominant ASs, i.e., SAC, neotame (NEO), and cyclamate (CYC). On a global scale, SAC was also widely detected at concentrations of 0.01-326 mg/kg in pig feed from China, Switzerland, Japan, Chile, and the United States, suggesting the worldwide use of ASs in pig feed. NEO and CYC were found in 41% and 30% of the feed samples, respectively, at concentrations of 0.05-70 mg/kg, whereas other ASs were barely found with rather lower concentrations. The annual mass loads of ASs consumed via pig feed consumption were estimated at 2400 tons worldwide. Thus, pig farming is an important source of ASs to the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dandan Li
- MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Yiming Yao
- MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Hongwen Sun
- MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Yu Wang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Jian Pu
- Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design, Tokyo University, Tokyo 115-0053, Japan
- Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8654, Japan
| | - Raul Calderón
- Centro de Investigación en Recursos Naturales y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Fabrica 1990, Segundo Piso, Santiago, Chile
| | - Alfredo C Alder
- MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
| | - Kurunthachalam Kannan
- Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, and Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York 12201, United States
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