Determination of rate constants and half-lives for the simultaneous biodegradation of several cyanobacterial metabolites in Australian source waters

The fate of five cyanobacterial metabolites was assessed in water sourced from Lake Burragorang (Warragamba Dam) in New South Wales, Australia. All of the studied metabolites were shown to be biodegradable in this water source. For some metabolites, biodegradation was influenced by factors, including temperature, location (within the water body) and seasonal variations. The biodegradation of the metabolites was shown to follow pseudo-first-order kinetics with rate constants ranging from 8.0 × 10−4 to 1.3 × 10−2 h−1. Half-lives of the metabolites were also estimated and ranged from 2.2 to 36.1 d. The order of ease of biodegradability in this water source followed the trend: microcystin-LR ≥ cylindrospermopsin > saxitoxins > geosmin ≥ 2-methylisoborneol. The lack of detection of the mlrA gene during microcystin biodegradation suggests that these toxins may be degraded via a different pathway. While no metabolite-degrading organisms were isolated in this study, the inoculation of previously isolated geosmin- and microcystin-degrading bacteria into Lake Burragorang water resulted in efficient biodegradation of the respective metabolites. For example, microcystin-degrading isolate TT25 was able to degrade three microcystin variants to concentrations below analytical detection within 24 h, suggesting that inoculation of such bacteria has the potential to enhance biodegradation in Lake Burragorang.

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► Biodegradation of metabolites was affected by temporal, seasonal and spatial variations.
► Pseudo-first-order rate constants ranged from 8.0 × 10−4 to 1.3 × 10−2 h−1.
► Half-lives of the metabolites ranged from 2.2 d to 36.1 d.
► Ease of biodegradability followed the trend: MCLR > CYN > saxitoxin > geosmin > MIB.
► Seeding of metabolite-degrading bacteria resulted in efficient biodegradation.