Microbial associations for bioremediation. What does "microbial consortia" mean?

Microbial associations arise as useful tools in several biotechnological processes. Among them, bioremediation of contaminated environments usually takes advantage of these microbial associations. Despite being frequently used, these associations are indicated using a variety of expressions, showing a lack of consensus by specialists in the field. The main idea of this work is to analyze the variety of microbial associations referred to as "microbial consortia" (MC) in the context of pollutants biodegradation and bioremediation. To do that, we summarize the origin of the term pointing out the features that an MC is expected to meet, according to the opinion of several authors. An analysis of related bibliography was done seeking criteria to rationalize and classify MC in the context of bioremediation. We identify that the microbe's origin and the level of human intervention are usually considered as a category to classify them as natural microbial consortia (NMC), artificial microbial consortia (AMC), and synthetic microbial consortia (SMC). In this sense, NMC are those associations composed by microorganisms obtained from a single source while AMC members come from different sources. SMC are a class of AMC in which microbial composition is defined to accomplish a certain specific task. We propose that the effective or potential existence of the interaction among MC members in the source material should be considered as a category in the classification as well, in combination with the origin of the source and level of intervention. Cross-kingdom MC and new developments were also considered. Finally, the existence of grey zones in the limits between each proposed microbial consortia category is addressed. KEY POINTS: • Microbial consortia for bioremediation can be obtained through different methods. • The use of the term "microbial consortia" is unclear in the specialized literature. • We propose a simplified classification for microbial consortia for bioremediation.

Optimization and mechanisms for biodecoloration of a mixture of dyes by Trichosporon akiyoshidainum HP 2023.

Trichosporon akiyoshidainum HP2023 is a basidiomycetous yeast isolated from Las Yungas rainforest (Tucumán, Argentina) and selected based on its outstanding textile-dye-decolorizing ability. In this work, the decolorization process was optimized using Reactive Black 5 as dye model. Lactose and urea were chosen as carbon and nitrogen sources through a one-at-time approach. Afterwards, factorial designs were employed for medium optimization, leading to the formulation of a simpler optimized medium which contains in g L-1: lactose 10, yeast extract 1, urea 0.5, KH2PO4 1 and MgSO4 1. Temperature and agitation conditions were also optimized. The optimized medium and incubation conditions for dye removal were extrapolated to other dyes individually and a mixture of them. Dye removal process happened through both biosorption and biodegradation mechanisms, depending primarily on the dye structure. A positive relation between initial inoculum and dye removal rate and a negative relation between initial dye concentration and final dye removal percentages were found. Under optimized conditions, T. akiyoshidainum HP2023 was able to completely remove a mixture of dyes up to a concentration of 300 mg L-1, a concentration much higher than those expected in real effluents.

Removal efficiency of Cr6+ by indigenous Pichia sp. isolated from textile factory effluent.

Resistance of the indigenous strains P. jadinii M9 and P. anomala M10, to high Cr(6+) concentrations and their ability to reduce chromium in culture medium was studied. The isolates were able to tolerate chromium concentrations up to 104 µg mL(-1). Growth and reduction of Cr(6+) were dependent on incubation temperature, agitation, Cr(6+) concentration, and pH. Thus, in both studied strains the chromium removal was increased at 30 °C with agitation. The optimum pH was different, with values of pH 3.0 and pH 7.0 in the case of P. anomala M10 and pH 7.0 using P. jadinii M9. Chromate reduction occurred both in intact cells (grown in culture medium) as well as in cell-free extracts. Chromate reductase activity could be related to cytosolic or membrane-associated proteins. The presence of a chromate reductase activity points out a possible role of an enzyme in Cr(6+) reduction.

Optimization of culture medium composition for manganese peroxidase and tyrosinase production during Reactive Black 5 decolourization by the yeast Trichosporon akiyoshidainum.

Decolourization and degradation of the diazo dye Reactive Black 5 was carried out by the yeast Trichosporon akiyoshidainum. A nine-factor Plackett-Burman design was employed for the study and optimization of the decolourization process and production of manganese peroxidase (MnP) and tyrosinase activities. In the present study, 26 individual experiments were conducted and three responses were evaluated. Raising yeast extract concentration significantly enhanced decolourization and MnP production. Carbon and nitrogen sources, glucose and (NH4)2 SO4, showed no significant effect on any response over the concentration range tested. Other culture medium components, such as CaCl2 or MgSO4, could be excluded from the medium formula, as they had no effect on the evaluated responses. Metal ions (Fe, Cu and Mn) showed different effects on decolourization and enzymatic activities. Addition of copper significantly enhanced MnP activity and decreased dye decolourization. On the contrary, iron had a positive effect on decolourization and no effect on enzyme production. Oddly, increasing manganese concentration had a positive effect on tyrosinase production without affecting decolourization or MnP activity. These results strongly suggest that dye decolourization should be regarded as a complex multi-enzymatic process, where optimal medium composition should arise as a compromise between those optimal for each implied enzyme production.