Denitrifying degradation of PAHs

phenanthrene (Phe) and pyrene (Pyr) were selected as representative PAHs to establish anaerobic denitrifying bioreactors (PheBR and PyrBR), enabling comparative investigation of single- and binary-substrate degradation dynamics and associated microbial community shifts.High-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing indicated that binary-substrate conditions promoted the enrichment of both PAH-degrading bacteria and denitrifiers, which is conducive to the denitrification degradation of mixed PAHs. This work elucidates the pathways and microbial interactions driving mixed PAH degradation under denitrifying conditions, providing mechanistic insights and practical guidance for the bioremediation of multi-component PAH-contaminated environments.