Genetic Bioaugmentation‐Mediated Bioremediation of Terephthalate in Soil Microcosms Using an Engineered Environmental Plasmid
ABSTRACT Harnessing in situ microbial communities to clean‐up polluted natural environments is a potentially efficient means of bioremediation, but often the necessary genes to breakdown pollutants are missing. Genetic bioaugmentation, whereby the required genes are delivered to resident bacteria vi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Microbial Biotechnology |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.70071 |
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| author | Alejandro Marquiegui – Alvaro Anastasia Kottara Micaela Chacón Lisa Cliffe Michael Brockhurst Neil Dixon |
| author_facet | Alejandro Marquiegui – Alvaro Anastasia Kottara Micaela Chacón Lisa Cliffe Michael Brockhurst Neil Dixon |
| author_sort | Alejandro Marquiegui – Alvaro |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Harnessing in situ microbial communities to clean‐up polluted natural environments is a potentially efficient means of bioremediation, but often the necessary genes to breakdown pollutants are missing. Genetic bioaugmentation, whereby the required genes are delivered to resident bacteria via horizontal gene transfer, offers a promising solution to this problem. Here, we engineered a conjugative plasmid previously isolated from soil, pQBR57, to carry a synthetic set of genes allowing bacteria to consume terephthalate, a chemical component of plastics commonly released during their manufacture and breakdown. Our engineered plasmid caused a low fitness cost and was stably maintained in terephthalate‐contaminated soil by the bacterium P. putida. Plasmid carriers efficiently bioremediated contaminated soil in model soil microcosms, achieving complete breakdown of 3.2 mg/g of terephthalate within 8 days. The engineered plasmid horizontally transferred the synthetic operon to P. fluorescens in situ, and the resulting transconjugants degraded 10 mM terephthalate during a 180‐h incubation. Our findings show that environmental plasmids carrying synthetic catabolic operons can be useful tools for in situ engineering of microbial communities to perform clean‐up even of complex environments like soil. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ff6709e6020a4cf99eb78bddd3e57179 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1751-7915 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Microbial Biotechnology |
| spelling | doaj-art-ff6709e6020a4cf99eb78bddd3e571792025-01-31T06:26:35ZengWileyMicrobial Biotechnology1751-79152025-01-01181n/an/a10.1111/1751-7915.70071Genetic Bioaugmentation‐Mediated Bioremediation of Terephthalate in Soil Microcosms Using an Engineered Environmental PlasmidAlejandro Marquiegui – Alvaro0Anastasia Kottara1Micaela Chacón2Lisa Cliffe3Michael Brockhurst4Neil Dixon5Department of Chemistry, and Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) The University of Manchester Manchester UKSchool of Biological Sciences The University of Manchester Manchester UKDepartment of Chemistry, and Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) The University of Manchester Manchester UKDepartment of Chemistry, and Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) The University of Manchester Manchester UKSchool of Biological Sciences The University of Manchester Manchester UKDepartment of Chemistry, and Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) The University of Manchester Manchester UKABSTRACT Harnessing in situ microbial communities to clean‐up polluted natural environments is a potentially efficient means of bioremediation, but often the necessary genes to breakdown pollutants are missing. Genetic bioaugmentation, whereby the required genes are delivered to resident bacteria via horizontal gene transfer, offers a promising solution to this problem. Here, we engineered a conjugative plasmid previously isolated from soil, pQBR57, to carry a synthetic set of genes allowing bacteria to consume terephthalate, a chemical component of plastics commonly released during their manufacture and breakdown. Our engineered plasmid caused a low fitness cost and was stably maintained in terephthalate‐contaminated soil by the bacterium P. putida. Plasmid carriers efficiently bioremediated contaminated soil in model soil microcosms, achieving complete breakdown of 3.2 mg/g of terephthalate within 8 days. The engineered plasmid horizontally transferred the synthetic operon to P. fluorescens in situ, and the resulting transconjugants degraded 10 mM terephthalate during a 180‐h incubation. Our findings show that environmental plasmids carrying synthetic catabolic operons can be useful tools for in situ engineering of microbial communities to perform clean‐up even of complex environments like soil.https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.70071bioremediationgenetic bioaugmentationhorizontal gene transfermobile plasmidterephthalate |
| spellingShingle | Alejandro Marquiegui – Alvaro Anastasia Kottara Micaela Chacón Lisa Cliffe Michael Brockhurst Neil Dixon Genetic Bioaugmentation‐Mediated Bioremediation of Terephthalate in Soil Microcosms Using an Engineered Environmental Plasmid Microbial Biotechnology bioremediation genetic bioaugmentation horizontal gene transfer mobile plasmid terephthalate |
| title | Genetic Bioaugmentation‐Mediated Bioremediation of Terephthalate in Soil Microcosms Using an Engineered Environmental Plasmid |
| title_full | Genetic Bioaugmentation‐Mediated Bioremediation of Terephthalate in Soil Microcosms Using an Engineered Environmental Plasmid |
| title_fullStr | Genetic Bioaugmentation‐Mediated Bioremediation of Terephthalate in Soil Microcosms Using an Engineered Environmental Plasmid |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genetic Bioaugmentation‐Mediated Bioremediation of Terephthalate in Soil Microcosms Using an Engineered Environmental Plasmid |
| title_short | Genetic Bioaugmentation‐Mediated Bioremediation of Terephthalate in Soil Microcosms Using an Engineered Environmental Plasmid |
| title_sort | genetic bioaugmentation mediated bioremediation of terephthalate in soil microcosms using an engineered environmental plasmid |
| topic | bioremediation genetic bioaugmentation horizontal gene transfer mobile plasmid terephthalate |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.70071 |
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