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Limited bisphenol A (BPA) degradation acceleration by pre-acclimating microplastic biofilms with BPA in natural lake water
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Researchers investigated how bisphenol A (BPA) at 0.1 mg/L affects microplastic biofilm formation and biodegradation in natural lake water, finding that BPA reduced biofilm biomass and altered community diversity, shifting dominant genera from Ohtaekwangia to Bdellovibrio, while pre-acclimation of biofilms with BPA provided only limited enhancement of BPA degradation.
Abstract Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) and microplastics are prevalent in aquatic environments. Microplastic biofilms play a crucial role in the environmental degradation of BPA, but related research is lacking. We designed experiments to investigate the effect of BPA on microplastic biofilms and the effect of pre-acclimating biofilms on BPA degradation. Results: Even at low concentrations (0.1 mg L-1), BPA significantly reduced microplastic biofilm biomass (P < 0.05). High-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that BPA altered biofilm diversity, as evidenced by changes in Chao-1 and Shannon indices. The primary phyla in the microplastic biofilm included Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes. On the 7th day of biofilm formation, the dominant bacterial genus shifted from Ohtaekwangia to Bdellovibrio in groups with BPA treatment, and the relative abundance of Bdellovibrio reached 4.32% ± 5.34%. On the 14th day, Methylobacillus significantly increased in all treatments compared with the 7th day (P < 0.05). Adonis analysis demonstrated that the metabolic composition of the bacterial community also changed significantly (P < 0.05). BPA (0.1 mg L-1) pre-acclimation of microplastic biofilms led to a significant increase in the amount of BPA-degrading bacteria with no significant effect on BPA degradation efficiency. After 7 days, the BPA removal rate in high-concentration microplastic treatments (1600 mg L-1) reached > 90%. Conclusions: Biofilms significantly increased the BPA degradation rate by 174.78% to 889.25% on the third day, indicating that the biofilm accelerates BPA degradation efficiency in the short term. Our findings provide a foundation for further understanding the environmental risks associated with the coexistence of bisphenols and microplastics.
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