title: In Silico Identification of Bioremediation Potential: Carbamazepine and Other Recalcitrant Personal Care Products.
abstract: Emerging contaminants are principally personal care products not readily removed by conventional wastewater treatment and, with an increasing reliance on water recycling, become disseminated in drinking water supplies. Carbamazepine, a widely used neuroactive pharmaceutical, increasingly escapes wastewater treatment and is found in potable water. In this study, a mechanism is proposed by which carbamazepine resists biodegradation, and a previously unknown microbial biodegradation was predicted computationally. The prediction identified biphenyl dioxygenase from Paraburkholderia xenovorans LB400 as the best candidate enzyme for metabolizing carbamazepine. The rate of degradation described here is 40 times greater than the best reported rates. The metabolites cis-10,11-dihydroxy-10,11-dihydrocarbamazepine and cis-2,3-dihydroxy-2,3-dihydrocarbamazepine were demonstrated with the native organism and a recombinant host. The metabolites are considered nonharmful and mitigate the generation of carcinogenic acridine products known to form when advanced oxidation methods are used in water treatment. Other recalcitrant personal care products were subjected to prediction by the Pathway Prediction System and tested experimentally with P. xenovorans LB400. It was shown to biodegrade structurally diverse compounds. Predictions indicated hydrolase or oxygenase enzymes catalyzed the initial reactions. This study highlights the potential for using the growing body of enzyme-structural and genomic information with computational methods to rapidly identify enzymes and microorganisms that biodegrade emerging contaminants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ‡BioTechnology Institute, and §Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Kelly G
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3566-7334
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Aukema
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ‡BioTechnology Institute, and §Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Diego E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Escalante
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ‡BioTechnology Institute, and §Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Meghan M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Maltby
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ‡BioTechnology Institute, and §Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Asim K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Bera
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ‡BioTechnology Institute, and §Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Alptekin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aksan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ‡BioTechnology Institute, and §Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Lawrence P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Wackett
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002220:Carbamazepine / Q000378:metabolism*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry; D018508:Water Purification; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: D002220:Carbamazepine; D062065:Wastewater