by: Environmental Biotechnology Group / Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Multiple antibiotics are frequently detected in municipal sewage and natural water, which can induce ecological health risks. Microalgae treatment technology has the ability to remove emerging pollutants, and it has received much attention in recent years. Recently, the Environmental Biotechnology Group of the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences has explored the application of freshwater microalgae systems to remove multiple antibiotics. In this study, ten typical antibiotics, including sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole, sulfamethoxine, trimethoprim, clarithromycin, azithromycin, roxithromycin, lomefloxacin, levofloxacin, flumequine, were studied Subjects: Four strains of freshwater model microalgae, such as Haematococcus pluvialis, Scenedesmus platyphylla, Crescent horn algae, and Chlorella, were used to carry out antibiotic degradation research. The results show that all four microalgae culture systems can effectively degrade antibiotics, and the Haematococcus pluvialis culture system has the best degradation effect; biodegradation is the main way for microalgae to remove antibiotics, and biosorption, bioaccumulation and abiotic factors are The contribution of removal is limited; different microalgae degrade or use antibiotics to show specificity. Crescent and chlorella preferentially degrade macrolides and fluoroquinolone antibiotics, while Haematococcus pluvialis and Scenedesmus platensis preferentially degrade sulfonamide Antibiotics (Figure 1). Using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry, combined with targeted screening analysis techniques, to identify the structure of multiple degradation products, the degradation pathways of trimethoprim and other antibiotics were speculated. The application of ECOSAR toxicity analysis showed that the conversion product was less toxic than the parent compound, indicating that microalgae have the potential to treat antibiotic pollution in the water environment.

The research results were published in the "Journal of Hazardous Materials" titled "Dissipation of antibiotics by microalgae: Kinetics, identification of transformation products and pathways". Claude Kiki, a graduate student of the Urban Environment Institute, and visiting scholar Azhar Rashid are co-first authors, and Researcher Sun Qian is a corresponding author. The research was funded by the Jieqing Project in Fujian Province and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121985

Figure 1 Analysis of the degradation characteristics of microalgae on antibiotics

Figure 2 Potential transformation products and degradation pathways of microalgae degrading trimethoprim

Source: http://www.iue.cas.cn/xwzx/kydt/202004/t20200427_5564062.html

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