Physiological and transcriptome profiling of Chlorella sorokiniana: A study on azo dye wastewater decolorization

Over decades, synthetic dyes have become increasingly dominated by azo dyes posing a significant environmental risk due to their toxicity. Microalgae-based systems may offer an alternative for treatment of azo dye effluents to conventional physical-chemical methods. Here, microalgae were tested to decolorize industrial azo dye wastewater (ADW). Chlorella sorokiniana showed the highest decolorization efficiency in a preliminary screening test. Subsequently, the optimization of the experimental design resulted in 70% decolorization in a photobioreactor. Tolerance of this strain was evidenced using multiple approaches (growth and chlorophyll content assays, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and antioxidant level measurements). Raman microspectroscopy was employed for the quantification of ADW-specific compounds accumulated by the microalgal biomass. Finally, RNA-seq revealed the transcriptome profile of C. sorokiniana exposed to ADW for 72 h. Activated DNA repair and primary metabolism provided sufficient energy for microalgal growth to overcome the adverse toxic conditions. Furthermore, several transporter genes, oxidoreductases-, and glycosyltransferases-encoding genes were upregulated to effectively sequestrate and detoxify the ADW. This work demonstrates the potential utilization of C. sorokiniana as a tolerant strain for industrial wastewater treatment, emphasizing the regulation of its molecular mechanisms to cope with unfavorable growth conditions.

Annotation of chemotaxis gene clusters and proteins involved in chemotaxis of Bacillus subtilis strain MB378 capable of biodecolorizing different dyes

This study explores the chemotactic potential of Bacillus subtilis MB378 against industrial dyes. Initial screening with swim plate assay showed significant movement of Bacillus subtilis MB378 towards test compounds. According to quantitative capillary assay, B. subtilis MB378 exhibited high chemotaxis potential towards Acid Orange 52 (CI: 9.52), followed by Direct Red 28 (CI: 8.39) and Basic Green 4 (CI: 5.21) in glucose-supplemented medium. Sequencing and gene annotation results evidently showed presence of chemotaxis genes and flagellar motor proteins in Bacillus subtilis draft genome. Methyl-accepting proteins (involved in chemotaxis regulation) belonged to pfam00672, pfam00072, and pfam00015 protein families. Annotated chemotaxis machinery of MB378 comprised 8 Che genes, 5 chemoreceptor genes, associated flagellar proteins, and rotary motors. Chemotaxis genes of B. subtilis MB378 were compared with genes of closely related Bacillus strains (168, WK1, and HTA426), depicting highly conserved regions showing evolutionary relation between them. Considering results of present study, it can be speculated that test compounds triggered chemotactic genes, which made these compounds bioavailable to the bacterium. Hence, the bacterium recognized and approached these compounds and facilitated biodegradation and detoxification of these compounds.

In Vitro Heme Coordination of a Dye-Decolorizing Peroxidase-The Interplay of Key Amino Acids, pH, Buffer and Glycerol

Dye-decolorizing peroxidases (DyPs) have gained interest for their ability to oxidize anthraquinone-derived dyes and lignin model compounds. Spectroscopic techniques, such as electron paramagnetic resonance and optical absorption spectroscopy, provide main tools to study how the enzymatic function is linked to the heme-pocket architecture, provided the experimental conditions are carefully chosen. Here, these techniques are used to investigate the effect of active site perturbations on the structure of ferric P-class DyP from Klebsiella pneumoniae (KpDyP) and three variants of the main distal residues (D143A, R232A and D143A/R232A). Arg-232 is found to be important for maintaining the heme distal architecture and essential to facilitate an alkaline transition. The latter is promoted in absence of Asp-143. Furthermore, the non-innocent effect of the buffer choice and addition of the cryoprotectant glycerol is shown. However, while unavoidable or indiscriminate experimental conditions are pitfalls, careful comparison of the effects of different exogenous molecules on the electronic structure and spin state of the heme iron contains information about the inherent flexibility of the heme pocket. The interplay between structural flexibility, key amino acids, pH, temperature, buffer and glycerol during in vitro spectroscopic studies is discussed with respect to the poor peroxidase activity of bacterial P-class DyPs.

Increase in lipid productivity and photosynthetic activities during distillery wastewater decolorization by Chlorella vulgaris cultures

Finding an eco-friendly process for the decolorization of distillery wastewaters is a major concern. This study shows that the Chlorella vulgaris CCAP 211/19 strain can be used for color removal and direct production of oleaginous biomass. A response surface method was used for determining optimal operating conditions, including the dilution factor of industrial wastewater. The highest daily light supply values were the most efficient for color removal. The analysis of the microalgae physiological status confirmed that these colored waters could have a photoprotective action. Moreover, the increase in photosystem 2 activities of C. vulgaris CCAP 211/19 strain after short-term incubations in the presence of a synthetic melanoidin confirmed that this fraction is involved in the enhancement of lipid-enriched biomass production. The results show for the first time the stimulation effect of a melanoidin fraction on the lipid content and productivity by C. vulgaris. These results suggest that this approach may be used to design a closed loop, including water and CO₂ recycling for the wastewater dilution and photosynthetic carbon fixation, respectively, while providing biomass for useful renewable algae-based feedstocks of potential interest for a distillery process. KEY POINTS: • Chlorella vulgaris cultures can be used for decolorization of distillery wastewaters. • Diluted distillery wastewaters stimulate biomass and lipid productivities. • Melanoidins, as well as distillery wastewater, stimulate photosynthetic activities.

Melt-spun modified poly (styrene-co-butyl acrylate) fiber as a carrier to support manganese oxide and its application in dye wastewater decolorization

Polymer fiber, a kind of versatile material, has been widely used in many fields. However, emerging applications still urge us to develop some new kinds of fibers. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have created a promising prospect for organic wastewater decontamination; thus, it is of important significance to design a kind of special fiber that can be applied in AOPs. In this work, a viable route is proposed to fabricate manganese oxide-supporting melt-spun modified poly (styrene-co-butyl acrylate) fiber, and the prepared fiber has an excellent activity to catalyze H₂O₂ and O₃ to decolorize dye-containing water. The results show that the decolorization of a cationic blue solution can be completely accomplished within 10 min with the prepared fiber as a catalyst, and its decolorization efficiency can reach up to 96.2% within 40 min. The concentration of total organic carbon can decrease from 20.3 to 12.3 mg/L. The prepared fiber can be reused five times without any loss in decolorization efficiency. Compared with other manganese oxide-based catalysts reported in the literature, the prepared fiber also shows many advantages in decolorizing methylene blue such as easy separation, mild reaction condition, and high decolorization efficiency. Therefore, we are confident that the fiber introduced in this study will exhibit a great application potential in the field of dye wastewater treatment.

Fe-Loaded MOF-545(Fe): Peroxidase-Like Activity for Dye Degradation Dyes and High Adsorption for the Removal of Dyes from Wastewater

Methods to remove dye pollutants with natural enzyme, like horseradish peroxidase (HRP), are still limited due to high costs and low stability levels. The development of such a method with similar enzymatic activity is important and could be helpful in wastewater disposal. A metal organic framework material, Fe-loaded MOF-545 (Fe), was synthesized in our study as a new way to remove dyes due to its peroxidase-like activity. The structural characterizations of Fe-loaded MOF-545(Fe) was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis absorption spectra, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The peroxidase-like (POD-like) activity of Fe-loaded MOF-545(Fe) was investigated under different pH and temperature conditions. Because of the Fe added into the MOF-545 structure, the absorption of Fe-loaded MOF-545(Fe) for acid (anionic) dyes (methyl orange (MO)) was better than for basic (cationic) dyes (methylene blue (MB)). The Fe-loaded MOF-545(Fe) could give a significant color fading for MO and MB over a short time (about two hours) with peroxidase-like activity. The remarkable capacity of Fe-loaded MOF-545(Fe) to remove the MO or MB is due to not only physical adsorption, but also degradation of the MO and MB with POD-like activity. Therefore, Fe-loaded MOF-545(Fe) has significant potential regarding dye removal from wastewater.