Evaluación del sinergismo entre especies bacterianas y fúngicas, con capacidades metabólicas específicas en el consumo del contaminante emergente carbamazepina

Abstract

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a drug commonly used for the treatment of neurological disorders, but its presence in the environment as a contaminant has raised concern due to its adverse effects on aquatic organisms and human health. The application of biological treatments on this emerging pollutant are an alternative for its degradation, so the objective of this work was to isolate fungi from environmental samples from different parts of Ecuador, with the ability to grow in the presence of CBZ. The tolerance index (TI) of two fungi to increasing concentrations of CBZ was evaluated by means of the average growth in millimeters (mm) of the mycelium of the trials with respect to their controls. It was determined that the CBZ concentration that was best tolerated by the H3 fungus was 15 ppm, presenting a tolerance index of 0,99, categorized as high; while the concentration best tolerated by the H6 fungus was 40 ppm, presenting a tolerance index of 1,19, categorized as very high. Additionally, the synergism between the bacterium Enterobacter quasihormaechei and the two fungi under study, which present specific metabolic capacities in the consumption of CBZ, was evaluated by in vitro assays, whose results were evaluated by determining the growth obtained through units of area under the curve complemented with functional analysis of orthogonal comparisons and with independent t-student tests; The results showed that the consortium formed by fungus H3 - fungus H6 - bacteria (Enterobacter quasihormaechei) presented the best synergism value at 40 ppm of CBZ. The high tolerance capacity of these microorganisms, resulting in synergism and consortium formation capacity, may indicate their potential use as bioremediation agents for emerging contaminants of global concern, given that the bacteria have proven to be resistant to adverse environmental conditions and the fungi are recognized for their ability to produce enzymes capable of decomposing this contaminant.