Novel bacterial strains for the removal of microcystins from drinking water

Microcystins (MC) and nodularin (NOD) are common contaminants of drinking water around the world and due to their significant health impact it is important to explore suitable approaches for their removal. Unfortunately, these toxins are not always removed by conventional water treatments. One of the most exciting areas that hold promise for a successful and cost effective solution is bioremediation of microcystins. Recent work resulted in successful isolation and characterisation of 10 novel bacterial strains (Rhodococcus sp., Arthrobacter spp. and Brevibacterium sp.) capable of metabolizing microcystin-LR (MC-LR) in a Biolog MT2 assay. The work presented here aims to further investigate and evaluate the metabolism and the degradation of multiple microcystins (MC-LR, MC-LF, MC-LY, MC-LW and MC-RR) and nodularin by the bacterial isolates. A total of five bacterial isolates representing the three genera were evaluated using Biolog MT2 assay with a range of MCs where they all demonstrated an overall metabolism on all MCs and NOD. Subsequently, the results were confirmed by observing the degradation of the range of toxins in a separate batch experiment.