BiodegradationPub Date : 2026-06-28DOI: 10.1007/s10532-026-10328-4
Kiran M, Sindhu R, Supreeth M
{"title":"Enhancing chlorpyrifos degradation and plant growth through biochar-assisted microbial remediation","authors":"Kiran M, Sindhu R, Supreeth M","doi":"10.1007/s10532-026-10328-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10532-026-10328-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The extensive use of chlorpyrifos (CPF) in agriculture has led to persistent soil contamination, posing serious risks to environmental and human health. Developing sustainable, in situ remediation strategies is therefore a priority. This study evaluated an integrated plant-microbe-biochar system for the remediation of CPF-contaminated soils. Indigenous CPF-degrading bacteria were isolated from agricultural soils and screened for degradation efficiency in mineral salts medium (MSM) and soil microcosms. The most efficient isolate, designated C78, was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing as <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i>. In MSM supplemented with 200 mg/L CPF, <i>K. pneumoniae</i> C78 degraded > 80% of the pesticide within 72 h. The strain also exhibited multiple plant growth-promoting traits, including indole-3-acetic acid production, phosphate solubilization, and ammonia production, and retained these functions in the presence of CPF. Soil microcosm and pot experiments were conducted using <i>Ricinus communis</i> L. grown in soils spiked with CPF (100 and 200 mg/kg), with and without biochar amendment and bacterial inoculation. Inoculation with <i>K. pneumoniae</i> C78 significantly accelerated CPF dissipation compared with non-inoculated controls, and the combined treatment with biochar further enhanced degradation, leading to near-complete CPF removal within 21 days. GC–MS/MS analysis showed no accumulation of common toxic intermediates such as 3,5,6–trichloro–2–pyridinol (TCP) or DETP/TMP. Biochar amendment improved soil conditions and supported higher microbial activity, while plant–microbe interactions in the rhizosphere promoted seed germination, seedling vigor, biomass production, chlorophyll content, and protein levels under CPF stress. Overall, the results demonstrate that integrating CPF-degrading <i>K. pneumoniae</i> C78 with <i>R. communis</i> L<i>.</i> and biochar amendment constitutes a promising, eco-compatible strategy for enhancing CPF degradation and restoring the productivity of contaminated agricultural soils.</p><h3>Graphical abstract</h3>\u0000<div><figure><div><div><picture><source><img></source></picture></div></div></figure></div></div>","PeriodicalId":486,"journal":{"name":"Biodegradation","volume":"37 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10532-026-10328-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148337304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BiodegradationPub Date : 2026-06-26DOI: 10.1007/s10532-026-10330-w
Dorian Feumba-Monkam, Franck William Boyom-Tatchemo, Antoine Tamsa Arfao, Elie Acayanka, Moïse Nola, Georges Kamgang-Youbi
{"title":"Enhancement of biodegradation capacity of microbial consortium in non-thermal plasma post-discharge for the removal of azo dye Reactive Red 120","authors":"Dorian Feumba-Monkam, Franck William Boyom-Tatchemo, Antoine Tamsa Arfao, Elie Acayanka, Moïse Nola, Georges Kamgang-Youbi","doi":"10.1007/s10532-026-10330-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10532-026-10330-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The presence of emerging contaminants in wastewater remains a hot topic of environmental concern due to their persistence, even at low concentrations. Biological treatment appears as an easy technique to implement, but its efficiency could decrease face to the recalcitrant pollutants. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the synergistic effect between the Gliding arc plasma (Glidarc) and biodegradation (using a microbial consortium) routes for the degradation of Reactive Red 120 (RR120), as the model pollutant organic dye. Three bacterial species, including <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>, <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Vibrio cholerae</i>, were isolated on the surface waters, and combined into a consortium. RR120 (50–200 mg L<sup>−1</sup>) inhibited the microbial growth of each bacterial specie (until 99% for <i>S. aureus</i> at 4.2 × 109 CFU mL<sup>−1</sup>, 82% for <i>E. coli</i> at 6.8 × 10<sup>9</sup> CFU mL<sup>−1</sup>, 72% for <i>V. cholerae</i> at 8.0 × 10<sup>6</sup> CFU mL<sup>−1</sup>). Treatment using the consortium alone degraded 58% of RR120 (50 mg L<sup>−1</sup>) after 24 h of incubation, with a first-order kinetic constant of 0.032 h⁻<sup>1</sup>. To enhance this biological performance, RR120 solution was pre-treated using glidarc plasma for short times (5 and 10 min), resulting in an increase in the BOD<sub>5</sub>/COD ratio, which leading to the increase of the biodegradability. Under plasma post-discharge conditions with the microbial consortium, the biodegradation rate of RR120 reached 89% after 24 h of incubation, with a kinetic constant of 0.080 h⁻<sup>1</sup>. The biodegradation mechanism suggests that the process is initiated by the adsorption (approximately 34%), followed by microbial metabolism. This work shows that the microbial metabolism is significantly facilitated (catalysed) under plasma post-discharge conditions and highlights the economic benefit of the coupling both processes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":486,"journal":{"name":"Biodegradation","volume":"37 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148323607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Predicting the metalloproteome of Deinococcus indicus DR1 through integrative structure and function annotation","authors":"Sweety Deena Ramesh, Giri Vasan, Shricharan Senthilkumar, Menaka Thambiraja, Deepa Sethi, Richa Priyadarshini, Ragothaman M. Yennamalli","doi":"10.1007/s10532-026-10326-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10532-026-10326-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><i>Deinococcus indicus</i> DR1, a rod-shaped bacterium isolated from the Dadri wetlands (Uttar Pradesh, India), tolerates ionizing radiation and arsenic. However, the molecular basis of its wider heavy-metal resilience remains unclear, particularly for 1017 of the 4128 proteins still annotated as hypothetical. The aim of this study is to perform a proteome-wide structural and functional survey to address this gap. All 4128 proteins were modeled with AlphaFold2, yielding very-high-confidence structures of predicted local distance difference test scores ≥ 90 for 2145 sequences. CATH and InterPro analysis assigned domains to 2735 proteins. Functions were predicted by combining DeepFRI (graph neural-network), MorphologFinder (Foldseek coupled with EggNOG-Mapper), and existing GenBank annotations. Structural classification revealed domains involved in arsenic resistance properties. Functional annotation identified metal binding proteins. Recurrent domain architectures that include P-loop NTPases, Rossmann folds, GNAT acetyl-transferases, and sensor modules point to coordinated redox regulation and efflux pathways. The integrated workflow suggests that more than 100 previously uncharacterized proteins are associated with diverse metal-related functions including metal binding, cofactor utilization, transport, and detoxification across chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, and zinc. This indicates the presence of additional metal-associated proteins beyond the known arsenic-resistance (ars) gene cluster. However, their functional roles require experimental validation. Twenty high-confidence metal-binding candidates were prioritized for experimental validation through expression, mutagenesis, and gene-knockout studies. All structural models, domain assignments, and query tools are available at https://deinococcus.in, providing a resource for future investigations of heavy-metal tolerance in this organism.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":486,"journal":{"name":"Biodegradation","volume":"37 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148323606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BiodegradationPub Date : 2026-06-24DOI: 10.1007/s10532-026-10323-9
Syed Farhan Haider Bukhari, Zaffar Malik, Ahmad Ali, M. Nasir Khan, Ehab I. El-Hallous, Saqer S. Alotaibi, Sarah Albogami, Salman Aloufi, Mohamed Abdelaal, Anam Moosa, Faisal Zulfiqar
{"title":"Vermicompost-derived biochar alleviates nickel toxicity and bioaccumulation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)\u0000by improving soil properties and physiological functions","authors":"Syed Farhan Haider Bukhari, Zaffar Malik, Ahmad Ali, M. Nasir Khan, Ehab I. El-Hallous, Saqer S. Alotaibi, Sarah Albogami, Salman Aloufi, Mohamed Abdelaal, Anam Moosa, Faisal Zulfiqar","doi":"10.1007/s10532-026-10323-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10532-026-10323-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Heavy metals (HMs) toxicity, such as nickel (Ni), has significantly reduced crop productivity and threatens human health, while efficient and widely applicable mitigation techniques remain underexplored. Vermicompost is an effective organic amendment to improve soil fertility and increase crop growth under HMs contamination; however, its derived biochar has not been extensively used to remediate Ni phytotoxicity. Hence, this study evaluated the ability of vermicompost (VC) and its derived biochar (VCB) in restricting nickel (Ni) bioaccumulation and growth improvement of wheat.The Ni toxicity decreased plant growth, physiological functions, and antioxidant capacity, along with yield parameters. Moreover, soil DTPA extractable Ni, Ni concentration in root and shoot and bioaccumulation factors significantly increase in Ni-contaminated soil (100 and 200 mg Ni kg<sup>−1</sup>) compared with control (0 mg Ni kg⁻<sup>1</sup>) soil. In contrast, the application of VC and VCB to soils containing 100 and 200 mg Ni kg⁻<sup>1</sup> significantly increased dry biomass (17%–25%), chlorophyll a and b (24%–43%), carotenoids (15%–30%), root volume (17%–35%), and 100-grain yield (15%–29%) compared with their corresponding Ni-only treatments. Among VC and VCB, VCB showed more prominent results in decreasing proline (12%) and H₂O₂ (44%) contents and enhancing CAT (45%) and POD (53%) activities under both 100 and 200 mg Ni kg⁻<sup>1</sup> levels, along with improving soil chemical properties and significantly increasing soil fertility. Further, the VCB application to Ni contaminated soils (100 and 200 mg Kg<sup>−1</sup>) has significantly decreased soil-DTPA extractable Ni (59% and 44%), root and shoot Ni contents (56%, 65%, 56% and 53%), bioaccumulation factor (8% and 16%), respectively, compared with their corresponding Ni-only treatments. The VCB demonstrated a lower reduction in Ni translocation under Ni1 levels, whereas a significant reduction was found under Ni2 stress. The heatmap correlation and biplot PCA analysis confirmed that VC and VCB, particularly VCB, decreased soil and plant Ni, oxidative stress indicators, and metal accumulation factors and promoted growth, photosynthetic pigments and antioxidant variables through improved soil fertility compared to un-amended soil. This study provides a scientific basis and a practical solution for managing Ni-contaminated soils under diverse agroclimate conditions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":486,"journal":{"name":"Biodegradation","volume":"37 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148306543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}