Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

The Trojan Horse: A new biotechnology for pesticide removal at drinking water sand filters

Joint Event on 4^th World Congress and Expo on Applied Microbiology & 2^nd International Conference on Food Microbiology

November 29-December 01, 2017 Madrid, Spain

S Musovic, R P Redondo, X Wu and L Friis-Holm

Life Science Division, Danish Technological Institute, Denmark
University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Microb Biochem Technol

Abstract:

Groundwater filtration by rapid sand filters (RSF) at waterworks is a widespread technology for drinking water production, which efficiently removes the naturally occurring pollutants (e.g., NH4) by a combination of chemical and biological (microbial) processes. During the past few decades, unnatural toxic substances, pesticides, have appeared in groundwater, which challenges the future stable supply of drinking water to consumers. The aim of current project was to develop an environmentally friendly biotechnology dealing with pesticides in ground- and drinking water. The biotechnology is based on natural microorganisms in RSF, possessing the abilities to degrade pesticides toward CO2 and H2O. These skills are frequently located on mobile genetic elements (MGE), which bacteria exchange among themselves. Application of natural isolates with pesticide-degrading genes on mobile genetic elements (MGEP) would ensure transfer and permanent establishment of introduced MGEP among the native microbial communities. Hence, the Trojan Horse biotechnology`s omits the well-known limitations of low-to-none survival of exogenously introduced pollutant degrading bacteria in the environment. Results shown that prolonged (½ year) exposure of sand material to investigated pesticides enhanced the fraction of pesticide-degrading bacteria in enrichments, ensuring isolation. Pesticides effected the structure of microbial communities, reducing abundance of e.g. Alpha Proteobacteria and Nitrospira sp. by MCPP, or stimulation Springobacteriia sp. by glyphosate. Suitability of Trojan Horse concept was confirmed by experiments combining plasmid-borne reporter (gfp) gene and flow-cytometric approach, revealing dominance of Alpha-, Beta- and Gamma Proteobacteria among native sand filter bacteria that acquired investigated plasmid (MGE).

Biography :

S Musovic is a Molecular Microbiologist, completed his PhD in 2010 and Postdoctoral studies at Danish Technical University. He is currently Specialist in Microbiology and Bioengineering at Danish Technological Institute, where he leads Drinking Water Laboratory. He serves as a reviewer for five international journals, external/ invited expert in EU commissions LIF Team, has over 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, etc.