Effects of Cu and humic acids on degradation and fate of TBBPA in pure culture of Pseudomonas sp. strain CDT.

Soil contamination with tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) has caused great concerns; however, the presence of heavy metals and soil organic matter on the biodegradation of TBBPA is still unclear. We isolated Pseudomonas sp. strain CDT, a TBBPA-degrading bacterium, from activated sludge and incubated it with C-labeled TBBPA for 87 days in the absence and presence of Cu and humic acids (HA). TBBPA was degraded to organic-solvent extractable (59.4%±2.2%) and non-extractable (25.1%±1.3%) metabolites, mineralized to CO (4.8%±0.8%), and assimilated into cells (10.6%±0.9%) at the end of incubation. When Cu was present, the transformation of extractable metabolites into non-extractable metabolites and mineralization were inhibited, possibly due to the toxicity of Cu to cells. HA significantly inhibited both dissipation and mineralization of TBBPA and altered the fate of TBBPA in the culture by formation of HA-bound residues that amounted to 22.1%±3.7% of the transformed TBBPA. The inhibition from HA was attributed to adsorption of TBBPA and formation of bound residues with HA via reaction of reactive metabolites with HA molecules, which decreased bioavailability of TBBPA and metabolites in the culture. When Cu and HA were both present, Cu significantly promoted the HA inhibition on TBBPA dissipation but not on metabolite degradation. The results provide insights into individual and interactive effects of Cu and soil organic matter on the biotransformation of TBBPA and indicate that soil organic matter plays an essential role in determining the fate of organic pollutants in soil and mitigating heavy metal toxicity.