Environmental Pollution 2014-10-01

Fate and metabolism of tetrabromobisphenol A in soil slurries without and with the amendment with the alkylphenol degrading bacterium Sphingomonas sp. strain TTNP3.

Fangjie Li, Jiajia Wang, Peter Nastold, Bingqi Jiang, Feifei Sun, Armin Zenker, Boris Alexander Kolvenbach, Rong Ji, Philippe François-Xavier Corvini

Index: Environ. Pollut. 193 , 181-8, (2014)

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Abstract

Transformation of ring-(14)C-labelled tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA) was studied in an oxic soil slurry with and without amendment with Sphingomonas sp. strain TTNP3, a bacterium degrading bisphenol-A. TBBPA degradation was accompanied by mineralization and formation of metabolites and bound-residues. The biotransformation was stimulated in the slurry bio-augmented with strain TTNP3, via a mechanism of metabolic compensation, although this strain did not grow on TBBPA. In the absence and presence of strain TTNP3, six and nine metabolites, respectively, were identified. The initial O-methylation metabolite (TBBPA-monomethyl ether) and hydroxytribromobisphenol-A were detected only when strain TTNP3 was present. Four primary metabolic pathways of TBBPA in the slurries are proposed: oxidative skeletal rearrangements, O-methylation, ipso-substitution, and reductive debromination. Our study provides for the first time the information about the complex metabolism of TBBPA in oxic soil and suggests that type II ipso-substitution could play a significant role in the fate of alkylphenol derivatives in the environment. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.