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Biostimulation of indigenous microbes for uranium bioremediation in former U mine water: multidisciplinary approach assessment.

ABSTRACT: Characterizing uranium (U) mine water is necessary to understand and design an effective bioremediation strategy. In this study, water samples from two former U-mines in East Germany were analysed. The U and sulphate (SO₄^2-) concentrations of Schlema-Alberoda mine water (U: 1 mg/L; SO₄^2-: 335 mg/L) were 2 and 3 order of magnitude higher than those of the Pöhla sample (U: 0.01 mg/L; SO₄^2-: 0.5 mg/L). U and SO₄^2- seemed to influence the microbial diversity of the two water samples. Microbial diversity analysis identified U(VI)-reducing bacteria (e.g. Desulfurivibrio) and wood-degrading fungi (e.g. Cadophora) providing as electron donors for the growth of U-reducers. U-bioreduction experiments were performed to screen electron donors (glycerol, vanillic acid, and gluconic acid) for Schlema-Alberoda U-mine water bioremediation purpose. Thermodynamic speciation calculations show that under experimental conditions, U(VI) is not coordinated to the amended electron donors. Glycerol was the best-studied electron donor as it effectively removed 99% of soluble U, 95% of Fe, and 58% of SO₄^2- from the mine water, probably by biostimulation of indigenous microbes. Vanillic acid removed 90% of U, and no U removal occurred using gluconic acid.

SUBMITTER: Newman-Portela AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10821841 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Biostimulation of indigenous microbes for uranium bioremediation in former U mine water: multidisciplinary approach assessment.

Newman-Portela Antonio M AM Krawczyk-Bärsch Evelyn E Lopez-Fernandez Margarita M Bok Frank F Kassahun Andrea A Drobot Björn B Steudtner Robin R Stumpf Thorsten T Raff Johannes J Merroun Mohamed L ML

Environmental science and pollution research international 20231229 5

Characterizing uranium (U) mine water is necessary to understand and design an effective bioremediation strategy. In this study, water samples from two former U-mines in East Germany were analysed. The U and sulphate (SO42-) concentrations of Schlema-Alberoda mine water (U: 1 mg/L; SO42-: 335 mg/L) were 2 and 3 order of magnitude higher than those of the Pöhla sample (U: 0.01 mg/L; SO42-: 0.5 mg/L). U and SO42-</su ...[more]

PMID: 38157180

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Project description:The extraction and processing of uranium (U) have polluted large areas worldwide, rendering anthropogenic extreme environments inhospitable to most species. Noticeably, these sites are of great interest for taxonomical and applied bioprospection of extremotolerant species successfully adapted to U tailings contamination. As an example, in this work we have studied a microalgae species that inhabits extreme U tailings ponds at the Saelices mining site (Salamanca, Spain), characterized as acidic (pH between 3 and 4), radioactive (around 4 μSv h-1) and contaminated with metals, mainly U (from 25 to 48 mg L-1) and zinc (from 17 to 87 mg L-1). After isolation of the extremotolerant ChlSP strain, morphological characterization and internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-5.8S gene sequences placed it in the Chlamydomonadaceae, but BLAST analyses identity values, against the nucleotide datasets at the NCBI database, were very low (<92%). We subjected the ChlSP strain to an artificial selection protocol to increase the U uptake and investigated its response to selection. The ancestral strain ChlSP showed a U-uptake capacity of ≈4.30 mg U g-1 of dry biomass (DB). However, the artificially selected strain ChlSG was able to take up a total of ≈6.34 mg U g-1 DB, close to the theoretical maximum response (≈7.9 mg U g-1 DB). The selected ChlSG strain showed two possible U-uptake mechanisms: the greatest proportion by biosorption onto cell walls (ca. 90%), and only a very small quantity, ~0.46 mg g-1 DB, irreversibly bound by bioaccumulation. Additionally, the kinetics of the U-uptake process were characterized during a microalgae growth curve; ChlSG cells removed close to 4 mg L-1 of U in 24 days. These findings open up promising prospects for sustainable management of U tailings waters based on newly evolved extremotolerants and outline the potential of artificial selection in the improvement of desired features in microalgae by experimental adaptation and selection.

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Dataset Information

Biostimulation of indigenous microbes for uranium bioremediation in former U mine water: multidisciplinary approach assessment.

Publications

Biostimulation of indigenous microbes for uranium bioremediation in former U mine water: multidisciplinary approach assessment.

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