Biotransformation of cadmium-sulfamethazine combined pollutant in aqueous environments: Phanerochaete chrysosporium bring cautious optimism

Microorganism biotransformation of sulfamethazine (SMT) in aqueous environments is a major concern, especially considering their exposure to coexisting SMT and heavy metals. Phanerochaete chrysosporium ( P. chrysosporium ) is a more concerned Cadmium (Cd) and SMT hyper accumulation specie. This study, referring to metabolic mechanisms and application, was performed to investigate the single and combined effects of Cd-SMT, including toxicity, resistance, as well as the accumulation and biotransformation by P. chrysosporium . The results revealed that Cd-SMT co-contamination caused increasing active oxygen accumulation, and the number of antioxidant enzyme and non-enzymatic antioxidants were higher than that under the stress of their individual pollution. It was found that P. chrysosporium accumulated high levels of Cd with the increment of 6.98–23.96% induced by Cd-SMT co-contamination compared to under the stress of Cd individual pollution. What's more, the addition of Cd reduced the toxicity of SMT to P. chrysosporium . The decrease of malonaldehyde and the increase of protein also proved that P. chrysosporium held enormous potential to fit in the co-contaminated environment, and to remediate the co-contaminated water especially in the long-term treatment. These results undoubtedly contribute to the development of fungi-based technologies and the applications of P. chrysosporium in realistic environment rather than laboratory simulation environment.