Dechlorination of wastewater from shell-based glucosamine processing by mangrove wetland-derived fungi

Zhiping Han; Edward S X Moh; André L S Santos; Iuri C Barcellos; Yuanhuai Peng; Weicong Huang; Jianzhi Ye

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1271286

Dechlorination of wastewater from shell-based glucosamine processing by mangrove wetland-derived fungi

Front Microbiol. 2023 Oct 13:14:1271286. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1271286. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zhiping Han¹, Edward S X Moh², André L S Santos³, Iuri C Barcellos³, Yuanhuai Peng¹, Weicong Huang¹, Jianzhi Ye⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science and Engineering, Lingnan Normal University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China.
² ARC Centre of Excellence for Synthetic Biology, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ Department of General Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology Paulo de Góes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and Rede Micologia RJ - FAPERJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁴ Agricultural Products Processing Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China.

Abstract

Wastewater from processing crustacean shell features ultrahigh chloride content. Bioremediation of the wastewater is challenging due to the high chloride ion content, making it inhospitable for most microorganisms to survive and growth. In this study, mangrove wetland-derived fungi were first tested for their salt tolerance, and the highly tolerant isolates were cultured in shrimp processing wastewater and the chloride concentration was monitored. Notably, the filamentous fungal species Aspergillus piperis could remove over 70% of the chloride in the wastewater within 3 days, with the fastest biomass increase (2.01 times heavier) and chloride removal occurring between day one and two. The chloride ions were sequestered into the fungal cells. The genome of this fungal species contained Cl^- conversion enzymes, which may have contributed to the ion removal. The fungal strain was found to be of low virulence in larval models and could serve as a starting point for further considerations in bioremediation of shell processing wastewater, promoting the development of green technology in the shell processing industry.

Keywords: bioremediation; environmental safety; fungi; industry wastewater; inorganic chloride removal.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was financially supported in part by Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province of China (grant number 322MS121), Science and Technology Planning Projects of Zhanjiang, China (grant number 2020A01040), EM is supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Australia (CE200100029). Brazilian agencies FAPERJ, CNPq and CAPES also supported the study.