RESEARCH NEWS FROM THE MEWE SPECIALIST GROUPBiodegradati<strong>on</strong> of the herbicide propanil <strong>and</strong> its metabolite 3,4-dichloroanilineMarques R., Carvalho G., Oehmen A., Reis M.A.M.REQUIMTE/CQFB, Chemistry DepartmentFCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.Propanil is a herbicide widely used in the cultivati<strong>on</strong> of rice, used to c<strong>on</strong>trol broadleaf weeds. Sincepropanil is essentially applied to flooded rice paddies, it can c<strong>on</strong>taminate surface <strong>and</strong> groundwaters. Biological mechanisms to fully degrade these compounds are not often found in nature <strong>and</strong>so propanil tends to accumulate either as the intact parent compound or as a partially transformedmetabolite, mainly 3,4-dichloroaniline (DCA). Both forms represent health <strong>and</strong> ecotoxicity hazards,c<strong>on</strong>taminating both soils <strong>and</strong> waters, producing toxic effects <strong>on</strong> mammals <strong>and</strong> fish as well asaffecting the human immune system (Pothuluri et al., 1991). C<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong>s up to 3600 µg.L −1(propanil) <strong>and</strong> 568 µg.L −1 (DCA) have been found in irrigati<strong>on</strong> water (Primel et al., 2007), farabove the maximum permitted c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong> for discharge into the aquatic envir<strong>on</strong>ment of 0.1µg.L −1 (Pesticides Framework Directive 2009/128/EC). Biological treatment using a mixed cultureapplied in situ can be an inexpensive <strong>and</strong> sustainable soluti<strong>on</strong> to remove propanil <strong>and</strong> DCA fromc<strong>on</strong>taminated waters <strong>and</strong> soils. The objective of this work was to underst<strong>and</strong> the c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s thatenhance the selecti<strong>on</strong> of propanil <strong>and</strong> DCA degrading microbial communities <strong>and</strong> improve theirperformance.<strong>Microbial</strong> enrichments were initiated <strong>and</strong> cultivated from soil c<strong>on</strong>taminated with several herbicides,including propanil, as well as soil from organic rice agriculture. After this, the mixed culture wasused to inoculate a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), which was initially operated with dump feedingof propanil at a c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong> of 0.5 mM added <strong>on</strong>ce per cycle (aerati<strong>on</strong> phase of 24-96h, followedby settling <strong>and</strong> decant). Batch tests at different initial propanil c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong>s were carried out toevaluate biomass acclimatizati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> biodegradati<strong>on</strong> kinetics of propanil <strong>and</strong> its metabolites.During operati<strong>on</strong> with dump feeding strategy, an accumulati<strong>on</strong> of the intermediate DCA wasobserved in all of the batch tests, since maximum propanil degradati<strong>on</strong> rates (7.9–12.4 mmolgVSS −1 d −1 ) were always higher than those of DCA (1.4-5.6 mmol gVSS −1 d −1 ). The batch testcarried out with the highest c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong> of propanil (0.59 mM, Figure 1a) resulted in theaccumulati<strong>on</strong> of DCA up to 0.53 mM. In this test, propanil was completely hydrolyzed during thefirst day, while DCA degradati<strong>on</strong> occurred at a faster rate <strong>on</strong>ly after 3.5 days. DCA accumulati<strong>on</strong>was clearly inhibitory to the biomass. Thus, the operati<strong>on</strong>al mode was changed to a fed-batchstrategy, with a lower initial propanil c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong> (0.15 mM in the reactor after each feed), wherethe reactor was fed twice per 24-h cycle. A new series of batch tests was carried out to characterizethe kinetics during the fed-batch operati<strong>on</strong> stage, approximately 30 days after switching to thisfeeding strategy. An increase in performance was clear as compared to the dump feed stage, whereDCA no l<strong>on</strong>ger accumulated to inhibitory levels, even when increasing the initial propanilc<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong> to 0.59 mM (Figure 1b). The increased DCA degradati<strong>on</strong> kinetics could be related toa shift in the microbial populati<strong>on</strong> compositi<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong>/or the fact that the DCA c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong> was____________________________________________________________________________________________________________6<strong>IWA</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Specialist</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Group</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Microbial</strong> <strong>Ecology</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Water</strong> <strong>Engineering</strong>:Newsletter July 2011
kept below inhibitory levels, thereby leading to an increased synthesis (or prol<strong>on</strong>ged activity of)propanil- <strong>and</strong> DCA-degrading enzymes. Indeed, additi<strong>on</strong>al batch tests carried out with DCA as thesole carb<strong>on</strong> source (0.25 <strong>and</strong> 0.59 mM), showed reduced degradati<strong>on</strong> rates as compared to thoseobserved in the propanil tests. This could be due to the time required to synthesize the enzymesnecessary for DCA degradati<strong>on</strong>, which could be slowly produced as DCA was gradually formed inthe tests fed with propanil.Figure 1. Propanil <strong>and</strong> DCA degradati<strong>on</strong> profiles obtained from batch tests carried out during SBRoperati<strong>on</strong> with a dump (a) <strong>and</strong> fed-batch (b) feeding strategy <strong>and</strong> initial propanil c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong>s of0.59 mM. Adapted from Carvalho et al. (2010).________________________________________________________________________________________________________<strong>IWA</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Specialist</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Group</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Microbial</strong> <strong>Ecology</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Water</strong> <strong>Engineering</strong>:7Newsletter July 2011