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Biodegradation of sulfamethazine by an isolated thermophile–Geobacillus sp. S-07

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Abstract

Sulfamethazine (SM2) is an antimicrobial drug that is frequently detected in manure compost, is difficult to degrade at high temperatures and is potentially threatening to the environment. In this study, a thermophilic bacterium was isolated from the activated sludge of an antibiotics pharmaceutical factory; this bacterium has the ability to degrade SM2 at 70 °C, which is higher than the traditional manure composting temperature. The strain S-07 is closely related to Geobacillus thermoleovorans based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence. The optimal conditions for the degradation of SM2 are 70 °C, pH 6.0, 50 rpm rotation speed and 50 mL of culture volume. More than 95% of the SM2 contained in media was removed via co-metabolism within 24 h, which was a much higher percentage than that of the type strain of G. thermoleovorans. The supernatant from the S-07 culture grown in SM2-containing media showed slightly attenuated antibacterial activity. In addition, strain S-07 was able to degrade other sulfonamides, including sulfadiazine, sulfamethoxazole and sulfamerazine. These results imply that strain S-07 might be a new auxiliary bacterial resource for the biodegradation of sulfonamide residue in manure composting.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by grants from the Industry Leading Key Projects of Fujian Province (2015H0044), the FY2015 China-Japan Research Cooperative Program (2016YFE0118000), the Key Project of Young Talent of IUE, CAS (IUEZD201402), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41373092), the Key Project of Young Talents Frontier of IUE, CAS (IUEQN201501). In addition, the authors sincerely thank Prof. Zhao Feng for providing the Escherichia coli. K12 strain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Lan-jia Pan, Xiao-da Tang, Chun-xing Li, Guang-wei Yu & Yin Wang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Lan-jia Pan & Xiao-da Tang

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  1. Lan-jia Pan
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  2. Xiao-da Tang
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  3. Chun-xing Li
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  5. Yin Wang
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Correspondence to Yin Wang.

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Pan, Lj., Tang, Xd., Li, Cx. et al. Biodegradation of sulfamethazine by an isolated thermophile–Geobacillus sp. S-07. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 33, 85 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-017-2245-2

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