Abstract
The occurrence of metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has raised great concerns about their adverse impacts on nitrification performance. In this study, a heterotrophic nitrifying bacterium Pseudomonas putida strain NP5 showed strong resistance against TiO2 and NiO NPs. Under 5–50 mg/L NP stress, cell viability was still normal, and the final nutrient removal rates, always higher than 80%, were slightly inhibited. Correspondingly, the PO43−-P removal rates were almost the same as those observed in the control test. Although the enzyme assay demonstrated ammonia monooxygenase and hydroxylamine oxidoreductase activities markedly decreased caused by increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) level under 50 mg/L NPs stress. The total antioxidant capability of NP5 could eliminate excess ROS to maintain a balance between oxidants and antioxidants. Besides, in response to the escalating burden of NPs, strain NP5 tended to secrete more extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), which could protect cell from being damaged by binding to ions and coating. Thus, the strong NP resistance of NP5 would help to overcome the vulnerability of the nitrification process in WWTPs.
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Funding
This study was supported by the Special Scientific Research Program of Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (grant no. 21JK0716), the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province (grant no. 2022JM-217), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51878537).
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Huan-Huan Liu, Lei Yang: conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, investigation, software, writing—original draft; Lei Yang: conceptualization, supervision, reviewing and editing; Lin-Kai Guo, Li-Xin Tu, Xiao-Tong Li, Jia Wang, Yong-Xiang Ren: visualization; writing—review and editing.
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Liu, HH., Yang, L., Guo, LK. et al. The nutrient removal and tolerance mechanism of a heterotrophic nitrifying bacterium Pseudomonas putida strain NP5 under metal oxide nanoparticles stress. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 28227–28237 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24055-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24055-9