Biodegradation and Metabolic Pathway of 17 beta-Estradiol by Rhodococcus sp. ED55

• Autor(a) principal: Moreira, Irina S.
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Murgolo, Sapia, Mascolo, Giuseppe, Castro, Paula M. L.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/37901
• topic: Endocrine disrupting chemicals; Rhodococcus sp. ED55; Bioaugmentation; Wastewater; 17 beta-estradiol

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in the environment are considered a motif of concern, due to the widespread occurrence and potential adverse ecological and human health effects. The natural estrogen, 17 beta-estradiol (E2), is frequently detected in receiving water bodies after not being efficiently removed in conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), promoting a negative impact for both the aquatic ecosystem and human health. In this study, the biodegradation of E2 by Rhodococcus sp. ED55, a bacterial strain isolated from sediments of a discharge point of WWTP in Coloane, Macau, was investigated. Rhodococcus sp. ED55 was able to completely degrade 5 mg/L of E2 in 4 h in a synthetic medium. A similar degradation pattern was observed when the bacterial strain was used in wastewater collected from a WWTP, where a significant improvement in the degradation of the compound occurred. The detection and identification of 17 metabolites was achieved by means of UPLC/ESI/HRMS, which proposed a degradation pathway of E2. The acute test with luminescent marine bacterium Aliivibrio fischeri revealed the elimination of the toxicity of the treated effluent and the standardized yeast estrogenic (S-YES) assay with the recombinant strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae revealed a decrease in the estrogenic activity of wastewater samples after biodegradation.