Microbial communities associated with the co-metabolism of free cyanide and thiocyanate under alkaline conditions.

This study focused on the identification of free cyanide (CDO) and thiocyanate (TDO) degrading microbial communities using a culture-dependent and independent approach. Culturable microbial species were isolated from the CDOs ( = 13) and TDOs ( = 18). The CDOs were largely dominated by sp. while the TDOs were dominated by sp., , sp. and sp. However, 16S rRNA amplicon gene-sequencing revealed the complexity and diversity of the microbial communities in contrast to the organisms that were detected using culture-dependent technique. Overall, the organisms were mainly dominated by and sp. at 37.82 and 30.5% for CDOs, and 35.26 and 17.58% for TDOs, respectively. The co-culturing of the CDOs and TDOs resulted in biochemical changes of key metabolic enzymes, and this resulted in the complete degradation of CN and SCN simultaneously; a phenomenon which has not been witnessed, especially under alkaline conditions. Current ongoing studies are focused on the application of these organisms for the biodegradation of CN and SCN in a continuous system, under changing operational parameters, to assess their effectiveness in the biodegradation of CN and SCN.