title: Impact of tobramycin on the performance of microbial fuel cell.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The release of antibiotics into aquatic environments has made the treatment of wastewater containing antibiotics a world-wide public health problem. The ability of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to harvest electricity from organic waste and renewable biomass is attracting increased interest in wastewater treatment. In this paper we investigated the bioelectrochemical response of an electroactive mixed-culture biofilm in MFC to different tobramycin concentrations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The electroactive biofilms showed a high degree of robustness against tobramycin at the level of μg/L. The current generation responses of the biofilms were affected by the presence of tobramycin. The inhibition ratio of the MFC increased exponentially with the tobramycin concentrations in the range of 0.1-1.9 g/L. The bacterial communities of the biofilms vary with the concentrations of tobramycin, the equilibrium of which is critical for the stability of electroactive biofilms based-MFC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Experimental results demonstrate that the electroactive biofilm-based MFC is robust against antibiotics at the level of μg/L, but sensitive to changes in antibiotic concentration at the level of g/L. These results could provide significant information about the effects of antibiotics on the performance MFC as a waste-treatment technology.
authors.forename: Wenguo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Keaton Larson
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Lesnik
authors.forename: Shoutao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Luguang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology; D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects; D058645:Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis; D004560:Electricity; D064307:Microbiota / Q000187:drug effects; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D014031:Tobramycin / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D014031:Tobramycin