Erythromycin is becoming one of the most common contaminants detected in surface water and wastewater, which poses a potential risk to ecological systems and human health. Until now, there is still no effective way to eliminate it. Herein, a novel and efficient erythromycin-degrading fungus Peniophora incarnata F1, capable of utilizing erythromycin as its sole source of carbon and energy, was isolated from contaminated sludge. Moreover, a fungal immobilization system was developed using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), sodium alginate (SA) and rape straw biochar (RB) to enhance the removal ability of erythromycin. Under optimal conditions of 30 °C and pH 6.0, the removal rate of erythromycin with PVA-SA-RB@F1 within 5 d reached 89.90%, which is 31.43% higher than that of free strain F1 (58.47%). Furthermore, eight biodegradation products of erythromycin were identified, and five compounds were firstly reported. Based on these metabolites, we inferred erythromycin was transformed to simple products mainly by dehydration, desugar, dehydrogenation, ester bond hydrolysis and carbon chain cleavage reactions. Finally, PVA-SA-RB@F1 were applied to wastewater contained 10 mg/L and 50 mg/L erythromycin, with the removal rates of 100% and 64.97%, respectively. These results show that PVA-SA-RB@F1 can be used as an effective tool to remove erythromycin in water environment. Therefore, this study provides a feasible strategy for bioremediation of erythromycin polluted environment.
Keywords: Degradation; Erythromycin; Immobilization; Peniophora incarnata F1.
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