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Microbial community structure and dynamics in a membrane bioreactor supplemented with the flame retardant dibromoneopentyl glycol

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Abstract

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are a group of widely used compounds that, due to their limited biodegradability, exhibit excessive persistence in the environment. The persistence and high toxicity of these compounds to the natural biota causes great environmental concern. We investigated the biodegradation of the BFR dibromoneopentyl glycol (DBNPG) under continuous culture conditions using a miniature membrane bioreactor (mMBR) to assess its feasibility as a bioremediation approach. This system demonstrated long-term, stable biodegradation of DBNPG (>90 days), with an average removal rate of about 50 %. Pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene of the microorganisms involved in this process revealed the dominance of reads affiliated with the genus Brevundimonas of the Alphaproteobacteria class during the different mMBR operational stages. The bacterial community was also dominated by reads affiliated with the Sinorhizobium and Sphingopyxis genera within the Alphaproteobacteria class and the Sediminibacterium genus of the Sphingobacteria class. Real-time PCR used to analyze possible changes in the population dynamics of these four dominant groups revealed their consistent presence throughout the long-term mMBR biodegradation activity. Two genera, Brevundimonas and Sphingopyxis, were found to increase in abundance during the acclimation period and then remained relatively stable, forming the main parts of the consortium over the prolonged active stage.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; grant no. 02WA1052), the Israeli Ministry of Science, Culture, and Sport (BMBF-MOST grant no. WT-901) and the Ramat Hovav Council, Israel. The authors thank Sheli Radoshitzky and Esti Kramarsky-Winter for their helpful comments on the manuscript, and Yigal Kotler and Tal Biton for their assistance with the statistical analysis.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, 8410501, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Moran Zangi-Kotler, Eitan Ben-Dov & Ariel Kushmaro

  2. Achva Academic College, 7980400, M.P. Shikmim, Israel

    Eitan Ben-Dov

  3. DVGW-Technologiezentrum Wasser (TZW), Karlsruher Straße 84, 76139, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Andreas Tiehm

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Ariel Kushmaro

Authors
  1. Moran Zangi-Kotler
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  2. Eitan Ben-Dov
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  3. Andreas Tiehm
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  4. Ariel Kushmaro
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Correspondence to Ariel Kushmaro.

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Responsible editor: Gerald Thouand

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Zangi-Kotler, M., Ben-Dov, E., Tiehm, A. et al. Microbial community structure and dynamics in a membrane bioreactor supplemented with the flame retardant dibromoneopentyl glycol. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 17615–17624 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4975-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4975-8

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