Blocking bacterial appendage attachment to wastewater treatment membranes using anti-adhesins

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2023-05, Vol.323, p.138246-138246, Article 138246
• Main Authors: Zamora, Ricardo, McEvoy, John, Colbert, Christopher, Chacana Olivares, Jaime, Kaewlom, Puangrat, Khan, Eakalak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anti-adhesion; Bacteria; Biofilms; Biofouling - prevention & control; Biofouling prevention; Bioreactors - microbiology; CDC bioreactor; Membrane bioreactors; Membranes, Artificial; Microbial appendages; Wastewater; Water Purification - methods
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138246

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) suffer from high operational and cleaning costs due to biofouling. The biofouling begins when the adhesins (an anchor-type epitope made up of polar and charged amino acids) on microbial appendages bind to the surface. Two different compounds–dodecyl-β-D-maltoside (DDM) and methyl α-d-mannopyranoside (MeαMan)–were investigated as possible biofilm mitigation tools due to their documented anti-adhesin properties in the biomedical field. DDM prevented up to 56.3, 87.0, and 67.6% of the formation of Pseudomonas putida, Escherichia coli and wastewater culture biofilms, respectively, in microplate experiments. MeαMan increased biofilm in the microplates. In a biofilm reactor setting, DDM was then applied on typical membrane materials, polyvinylidene fluoride, polyamide, polyether-sulfone, and polyacrylonitrile and prevented 79.4, 62.5, 81.3, and 68.2% of the detectable wastewater culture biofilm formation, respectively. The mechanism of anti-adhesion was the binding of the polar head of the DDM to the polar amino acids of the microbial appendages in conjunction with the orientation of the DDM as it binds different membrane materials. If the anti-adhesins are effective at increasing the distance of the bacteria from the membrane materials, they will serve as a new method for delaying biofouling. [Display omitted] •Dodecyl-β-D-maltoside (DDM) is effective in biofilm prevention in well plates.•DDM mitigates biofilm formation on membrane materials in a biofilm bioreactor.•DDM prevents appendages from attachment by blocking adhesion protein.•Hydrophobic materials cause a polar-nonpolar repulsion of appendages with DDM.