Pharmaceutical transforming microbes from wastewater and natural environments can colonize microplastics

Abigail W. Porter; Sarah J. Wolfson; Lily. Young; Abigail W. Porter; Sarah J. Wolfson; Lily. Young

doi:10.3934/environsci.2020006

AIMS Environmental Science

2020, Volume 7, Issue 1: 99-116. doi: 10.3934/environsci.2020006

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Pharmaceutical transforming microbes from wastewater and natural environments can colonize microplastics

1.
Department of Environmental Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
2.
Department of Systems and Computational Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

Received: 30 September 2019 Accepted: 11 February 2020 Published: 27 February 2020

Treated wastewater effluents are a source of emerging contaminants, including microplastics and pharmaceuticals, that impact rivers and streams. As microplastics are transported from wastewater treatment into the environment, pharmaceuticals can sorb to the surface and also be colonized by microorganisms. To investigate the microbial communities that are important in pharmaceutical transformation on microplastic surfaces, we used a culture-based approach with naproxen as the model pharmaceutical. Microplastic beads served as a solid substrate for delivering naproxen to anaerobic cultures inoculated with either anaerobic digester sludge or sediment from a wastewater-impacted river. After demonstrating naproxen transformation activity within the cultures, we separated the bulk liquid culture from the colonized microplastic beads and transferred them into separate bottles of sterile media amended with naproxen. Naproxen transformation occurred in cultures that contained microbially-colonized microplastics. Results from DNA analyses of the microbial community from each treatment demonstrated a different microbial community structure on the colonized plastic compared to that of the planktonic cells, thus illustrating a selection of the microbial community by the microplastics. These findings demonstrate that the microbial community attached to microplastic beads can continue pharmaceutical transformation activity when the microplastics are transferred to new media, thus serving as a model for the potential transport of pharmaceuticaltransforming microbes from wastewater treatment to freshwater environments.
- microplastics,
- naproxen,
- anaerobic pharmaceutical transformation,
- O-demethylation,
- naproxen demethylation
Citation: Abigail W. Porter, Sarah J. Wolfson, Lily. Young. Pharmaceutical transforming microbes from wastewater and natural environments can colonize microplastics[J]. AIMS Environmental Science, 2020, 7(1): 99-116. doi: 10.3934/environsci.2020006

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Abstract

Treated wastewater effluents are a source of emerging contaminants, including microplastics and pharmaceuticals, that impact rivers and streams. As microplastics are transported from wastewater treatment into the environment, pharmaceuticals can sorb to the surface and also be colonized by microorganisms. To investigate the microbial communities that are important in pharmaceutical transformation on microplastic surfaces, we used a culture-based approach with naproxen as the model pharmaceutical. Microplastic beads served as a solid substrate for delivering naproxen to anaerobic cultures inoculated with either anaerobic digester sludge or sediment from a wastewater-impacted river. After demonstrating naproxen transformation activity within the cultures, we separated the bulk liquid culture from the colonized microplastic beads and transferred them into separate bottles of sterile media amended with naproxen. Naproxen transformation occurred in cultures that contained microbially-colonized microplastics. Results from DNA analyses of the microbial community from each treatment demonstrated a different microbial community structure on the colonized plastic compared to that of the planktonic cells, thus illustrating a selection of the microbial community by the microplastics. These findings demonstrate that the microbial community attached to microplastic beads can continue pharmaceutical transformation activity when the microplastics are transferred to new media, thus serving as a model for the potential transport of pharmaceuticaltransforming microbes from wastewater treatment to freshwater environments.

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