Elucidating the impact of microbial community biodiversity on pharmaceutical biotransformation during wastewater treatment.

ABSTRACT: In addition to removing organics and other nutrients, the microorganisms in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) biotransform many pharmaceuticals present in wastewater. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between pharmaceutical biotransformation and biodiversity in WWTP bioreactor microbial communities and identify taxa and functional genes that were strongly associated with biotransformation. Dilution-to-extinction of an activated sludge microbial community was performed to establish cultures with a gradient of microbial biodiversity. Batch experiments were performed using the dilution cultures to determine biotransformation extents of several environmentally relevant pharmaceuticals. With this approach, because the communities were all established from the same or

SUBMITTER: Stadler LB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6196385 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature