Microbial removal of sulfamethoxazole by pure bacterial cultures isolated from the environment

Pharmaceuticals are an important group of environmental micropollutants which have recently attracted much attention of the international scientific community due to their global dissemination,and because of their ability to stimulate specific biological responses at very low concentrations. the fate of many of these pharmaceuticals in the environment has not been thoroughly investigated. sulfamethoxazole (smx) is one of the pharmaceuticals that display significant bioactivity,it is considered to be a persistent pollutant. the biodegradation of this compound by enriched bacteria isolated from activated sludge and household compost has been studied. nine bacterial strains were tested for their ability to grow in minimal mineral salt medium (mmsm) in presence of 6 mg/l of smx as a sole source of carbon and energy. the results revealed that all the strains are able to grow and resist smx. after a screening on a liquid medium,s4 and s2 strains identified as pseudomonas sp. and arthrobacter nicotianae,respectively,were selected for their particular ability to resist this micropollutant. the removal rates achieved by these strains after 48h of incubation in mmsm at 26°c were 34.27% and 32.95%,respectively (initial smx concentration was 3 mg/l),as quantified using hptlc,where adsorption and abiotic removal mechanisms were shown to be absent,showing that smx is certainly biodegradable. © 2017,university of mohammed premier oujda morocco.