Bacterial degradation of distillery wastewater pollutants and their metabolites characterization and its toxicity evaluation by using Caenorhabditis elegans as terrestrial test models

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2020-12, Vol.261, p.127689-127689, Article 127689
• Main Authors: Chowdhary, Pankaj, Sammi, Shreesh Raj, Pandey, Rakesh, Kaithwas, Gaurav, Raj, Abhay, Singh, Jiwan, Bharagava, Ram Naresh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Degradation and detoxification; Distillery wastewater; Environmental pollutants; LC-MS/MS analysis; Metabolites; Toxicity evaluation
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127689

Distillery wastewater has significant amount of coloring compounds and organic substances even after the secondary treatment process, which poses many severe environmental and health threats. However, the recalcitrant coloured compounds have not yet been clearly identified. In this study, two bacterial strains DS3 and DS5 capable to decolorize distillery wastewater (DWW) pollutants were isolated and characterized as Staphylococcus saprophyticus (MF182113) and Alcaligenaceae sp. (MF182114), respectively. Results showed that mixed bacterial culture was found more effective decolorizing 71.83% DWW compared to axenic culture DS3 and DS5 resulting only 47.94% and 50.67% decolorization, respectively. The FT-IR and LC-MS/MS analysis of untreated DWW showed the presence of many recalcitrant compounds having different functional groups, but after bacterial treatment, most of compounds get diminished and the toxicity of DWW was reduced significantly. Further, the Nile red staining of Caenorhabditis elegans exposed to untreated and bacteria treated DWW for evaluation of toxicity assay and results revealed that the worms exposed to untreated DWW showed sharp reduction in total fat content having more profound effects, suggesting the diminished nAchR signaling as compare to bacterial treated DWW. Hence, this study revealed that inadequate disposal of untreated DWW may cause transfer of toxic substances into the environment and receiving water bodies. [Display omitted] •Distillery wastewater has a variety of chemical pollutants.•Bacteria Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Alcaligenaceae sp. were used to treat DWW.•FT-IR and LC-MS used to characterize the DWW pollutants and their metabolites.•Toxicity of DWW pollutants and metabolites was evaluated by Caenorhabditis elegans.•Study showed disposal of untreated DWW may cause severe environmental pollution.