Biodegradation of estrone in activated sludge. Activated Sludge from a Wastewater Treatment Plant

In this project, we conducted biochemical and molecular studies to elucidate estrone biodegradation pathways and identify key estrone-degrading bacteria in activated sludge from Tubli wastewater treatment plant in Bahrain. We collected activated sludge samples and used them in laboratory microcosms amended with estrone. Samples were retrieved at time intervals from the test and control microcosms to analyze the biodegradation intermediates by UPLC-HRMS. Moreover, DNA was isolated from the activated sludge samples to study the compositional shifts of the activated sludge bacterial community and identify key estrone degraders by Illumina-MiSeq amplicon sequencing and bioinformatics analyses.