Abstract
Due to environmental persistence and biotoxicity of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), it is urgent to develop potential technologies to remediate PBDEs. Introducing electrodes for microbial electricity generation to stimulate the anaerobic degradation of organic pollutants is highly promising for bioremediation. However, it is still not clear whether the degradation of PBDEs could be promoted by this strategy. In this study, we hypothesized that the degradation of PBDEs (e.g., BDE-209) would be enhanced under microbial electricity generation condition. The functional compositions and structures of microbial communities in closed-circuit microbial fuel cell (c-MFC) and open-circuit microbial fuel cell (o-MFC) systems for BDE-209 degradation were detected by a comprehensive functional gene array, GeoChip 4.0, and linked with PBDE degradations. The results indicated that distinctly different microbial community structures were formed between c-MFCs and o-MFCs, and that lower concentrations of BDE-209 and the resulting lower brominated PBDE products were detected in c-MFCs after 70-day performance. The diversity and abundance of a variety of functional genes in c-MFCs were significantly higher than those in o-MFCs. Most genes involved in chlorinated solvent reductive dechlorination, hydroxylation, methoxylation and aromatic hydrocarbon degradation were highly enriched in c-MFCs and significantly positively correlated with the removal of PBDEs. Various other microbial functional genes for carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur cycling, as well as energy transformation process, were also significantly increased in c-MFCs. Together, these results suggest that PBDE degradation could be enhanced by introducing the electrodes for microbial electricity generation and by specifically stimulating microbial functional genes.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
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Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
MeSH terms
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Anaerobiosis
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Biodegradation, Environmental
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Bioelectric Energy Sources / microbiology*
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Bioreactors / microbiology
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Cluster Analysis
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Desulfovibrio / genetics
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Desulfovibrio / metabolism
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Electrodes
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Flame Retardants / metabolism*
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Genes, Bacterial
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Geobacter / genetics
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Geobacter / metabolism
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Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / metabolism*
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Pseudomonas / genetics
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Pseudomonas / metabolism
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Shewanella / genetics
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Shewanella / metabolism
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Soil Pollutants / metabolism
Substances
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Flame Retardants
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Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers
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Soil Pollutants
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decabromobiphenyl ether
Grants and funding
This research was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2012CB22307), the Team Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong, China (9351007002000001), the National Natural Science Foundation (31200096), the National Postdoctoral Foundation (2012M521578), the Postdoctoral Foundation of Guangdong Academy of Sciences (20120001), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (S2011010004267), the Guangdong-Hongkong Technology Cooperation Funding (2009A030902003), the Guangdong Province – Chinese Academy of Sciences strategic cooperative project (2009B091300023, 2010B090301048), and the International Cooperation Projects of Guangdong Province (2011B050400005). The development of the GeoChip and associated computational pipelines used in this study was funded by ENIGMA - Ecosystems and Networks Integrated with Genes and Molecular Assemblies through the Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, the United States Department of Energy under Contract No.DE-AC02-05CH11231. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.