Anaerobic biodegradation of trimethoprim with sulfate as an electron acceptor

Highlights

Anaerobic biodegradation of trimethoprim (TMP) coupled with sulfate reduction.

Demethylation of TMP is the first step in the acclimated microbial consortia.

The potential degraders and fermenters were enriched in the acclimated consortia.

Activated sludge and river sediment had similar core microbiomes.

Abstract

Trimethoprim (TMP) is an antibiotic frequently detected in various environments. Microorganisms are the main drivers of emerging antibiotic contaminant degradation in the environment. However, the feasibility and stability of the anaerobic biodegradation of TMP with sulfate as an electron acceptor remain poorly understood. Here, TMP-degrading microbial consortia were successfully enriched from municipal activated sludge (AS) and river sediment (RS) as the initial inoculums. The acclimated consortia were capable of transforming TMP through demethylation, and the hydroxyl-substituted demethylated product (4-desmethyl-TMP) was further degraded. The biodegradation of TMP followed a 3-parameter sigmoid kinetic model. The potential degraders (Acetobacterium, Desulfovibrio, Desulfobulbus, and unidentified Peptococcaceae) and fermenters (Lentimicrobium and Petrimonas) were significantly enriched in the acclimated consortia. The AS- and RS-acclimated TMP-degrading consortia had similar core microbiomes. The anaerobic biodegradation of TMP could be coupled with sulfate respiration, which gives new insights into the antibiotic fate in real environments and provides a new route for the bioremediation of antibiotic-contaminated environments.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Trimethoprim (TMP) biodegradation / Demethylation / Sulfate reduction / Core microbiome / Antibiotic fate

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51808537), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019M650866) the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KFZD-SW-219), the Youth Technology Fund Project of Gansu Province (No. 18JR3RA023), the Provincial Science and Technology Plan Projects of Gansu Province (No. 2015017) and the Youth Science and Technology Foundation of Gansu Province (No. 1506RJYA154).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-019-1168-6 and is accessible for authorized users.

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