title: Stimulating soil microorganisms for mineralizing the herbicide isoproturon by means of microbial electroremediating cells.
abstract: The absence of suitable terminal electron acceptors (TEA) in soil might limit the oxidative metabolism of environmental microbial populations. Microbial electroremediating cells (MERCs) consist in a variety of bioelectrochemical devices that aim to overcome electron acceptor limitation and maximize metabolic oxidation with the purpose of enhancing the biodegradation of a pollutant in the environment. The objective of this work was to use MERCs principles for stimulating soil bacteria to achieve the complete biodegradation of the herbicide (14) C-isoproturon (IPU) to (14) CO(2) in soils. Our study concludes that using electrodes at a positive potential [+600 mV (versus Ag/AgCl)] enhanced the mineralization by 20-fold respect the electrode-free control. We also report an overall profile of the (14) C-IPU metabolites and a (14) C mass balance in response to the different treatments. The remarkable impact of electrodes on the microbial activity of natural communities suggests a promising future for this emerging environmental technology that we propose to name bioelectroventing.
authors.affiliation: University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.|Helmholtz Zentrum München, Múnich, Germany.
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodrigo Quejigo
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Zentrum München, Múnich, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dörfler
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Zentrum München, Múnich, Germany.
authors.forename: Reiner
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schroll
authors.affiliation: University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.|IMDEA-WATER Parque Tecnológico de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Esteve-Núñez
mesh_terms: D001711:Biotransformation; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism; D004566:Electrodes; D006540:Herbicides / Q000378:metabolism*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010671:Phenylurea Compounds / Q000378:metabolism*; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D006540:Herbicides; D010671:Phenylurea Compounds; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; C028904:isoproturon