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Diclofenac Activated Sludge Microbial Consortium

Community ID CommunityMech:000379
Ecological State ENGINEERED
Environment glucose-amended diclofenac activated-sludge enrichment — ontology label: laboratory environment
ENVO:01001405 · HabitatMech ↗
Modeled Environment activated sludge
ENVO:00002046 · HabitatMech ↗
wastewater treatment plant
ENVO:00002043 · HabitatMech ↗

A laboratory microbial consortium enriched from activated sludge sampled at the San Jerónimo WWTP in Seville, Spain, by diclofenac selection and a glucose-supplemented MSM subculture. The MC degraded all 10 mg/L diclofenac in a glucose-amended mineral-salts flask assay within 5 days, producing extracellular 4'-hydroxy-diclofenac, 5-hydroxy-diclofenac, and putative nitro-DCF. 16S and ITS metabarcoding at the beginning and after 28 days showed a shift from Burkholderia-, Klebsiella-, Ochrobactrum-, Chthoniobacter-, and Malassezia-rich starting profiles to final bacterial and fungal profiles dominated by Burkholderia and Talaromyces, respectively.

Taxonomy

Taxon Ontology ID Functional Roles Abundance
Burkholderia NCBITaxon:32008 · TaxonMech · TraitMech DOMINANT
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "After 28 days of incubation in the presence of DCF, Burkholderia represented 88.9% of the community"
Klebsiella NCBITaxon:570 · TaxonMech · TraitMech ABUNDANT
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "Initially, the bacterial community was dominated by the genera Burkholderia (26.9% in relative abundance), Klebsiella (20.1%), Ochrobactrum (16.8%), and Chthoniobacter (14.1%)"
Ochrobactrum NCBITaxon:528 · TaxonMech · TraitMech ABUNDANT
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "Initially, the bacterial community was dominated by the genera Burkholderia (26.9% in relative abundance), Klebsiella (20.1%), Ochrobactrum (16.8%), and Chthoniobacter (14.1%)"
Chthoniobacter NCBITaxon:295577 · TaxonMech · TraitMech ABUNDANT
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "Initially, the bacterial community was dominated by the genera Burkholderia (26.9% in relative abundance), Klebsiella (20.1%), Ochrobactrum (16.8%), and Chthoniobacter (14.1%)"
Parachlamydia NCBITaxon:83551 · TaxonMech · TraitMech COMMON
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "Parachlamydia (from 0.7% to 6.6%) and Legionella (from 0.02% to 1.2%)"
Talaromyces NCBITaxon:5094 · TaxonMech · TraitMech DOMINANT
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "The genus Talaromyces dominated the community after complete DCF degradation (80.1%), followed by Aspergillus (15.1%) and a member of the Debaryomycetaceae family (4.8%)."
Aspergillus NCBITaxon:5052 · TaxonMech · TraitMech ABUNDANT
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "The genus Talaromyces dominated the community after complete DCF degradation (80.1%), followed by Aspergillus (15.1%) and a member of the Debaryomycetaceae family (4.8%)."
Debaryomycetaceae NCBITaxon:766764 · TaxonMech · TraitMech COMMON
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "The genus Talaromyces dominated the community after complete DCF degradation (80.1%), followed by Aspergillus (15.1%) and a member of the Debaryomycetaceae family (4.8%)."
Malassezia NCBITaxon:55193 · TaxonMech · TraitMech DOMINANT
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "The rare fungal community before exposure to DCF was represented by the genera Malassezia (97.6%), Cladosporium (1.4%), and Talaromyces (0.9%)."
Cladosporium NCBITaxon:5498 · TaxonMech · TraitMech COMMON
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "The rare fungal community before exposure to DCF was represented by the genera Malassezia (97.6%), Cladosporium (1.4%), and Talaromyces (0.9%)."

Ecological Interactions

The graph shows only explicitly linked interaction participants. Community members without an asserted participant link are omitted; membership alone does not imply an interaction.

Ecological interaction network for Diclofenac Activated Sludge Microbial Consortium Bipartite graph where circles represent taxa and non-circular symbols represent interactions. Rare or untyped interactions share the Other symbol; exact curated types remain in the interaction details.
Taxon
Other

Glucose-Amended Diclofenac Dissipation by MC

MC removed the 10 mg/L parent DCF spike within 5 days with 3 g/L glucose. MC retained extracellular 4'-OH-DCF and a tentative NO2-DCF signal, but 5-OH-DCF was not detected in MC. Parent disappearance does not establish mineralization or detoxification. Participants are a curated subset, not assigned individual degraders.

Participating Taxa: Burkholderia, Klebsiella, Ochrobactrum, Chthoniobacter, Parachlamydia, Talaromyces, Aspergillus, Debaryomycetaceae, Malassezia, Cladosporium

Metabolites: diclofenac (CHEBI:47381 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), D-glucose (CHEBI:4167 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), 4'-hydroxydiclofenac (CHEBI:59613 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech)

Biological Processes:

Evidence

  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Biodegradation assays supplemented with glucose showed limited removal (45.5%) by CSWD.1, whereas CSWD.2 and the MC achieved complete elimination (100%) of 10 mg L-1 DCF in 21 and 5 days, respectively."
  • PMID:41718267 - PARTIAL (IN_VITRO)
    "Three extracellular metabolites, 4'-hydroxy-diclofenac (4'-OH-DCF), 5-hydroxy-diclofenac (5-OH-DCF), and putative NO2-DCF, were detected"

DCF-Selected Community Shift

Before/after MC metabarcoding showed relative bacterial enrichment of Burkholderia and relative fungal enrichment of Talaromyces after 28 days. The 16S and ITS percentages have separate denominators. This glucose-amended time course does not establish absolute population growth, DCF-only causation, niche partitioning or member-specific degradation; canonical participants are a partial roster.

Participating Taxa: Burkholderia, Klebsiella, Ochrobactrum, Chthoniobacter, Parachlamydia, Talaromyces, Aspergillus, Debaryomycetaceae, Malassezia, Cladosporium

Metabolites: diclofenac (CHEBI:47381 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech)

Evidence

  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "DNA was extracted from microbial pellet samples collected at the beginning (“before”) and the end (“after” 28 days) of the DCF biodegradation experiment using the DNeasy PowerSoil Pro Kit"
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "Initially, the bacterial community was dominated by the genera Burkholderia (26.9% in relative abundance), Klebsiella (20.1%), Ochrobactrum (16.8%), and Chthoniobacter (14.1%)"
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "After 28 days of incubation in the presence of DCF, Burkholderia represented 88.9% of the community"
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "Parachlamydia (from 0.7% to 6.6%) and Legionella (from 0.02% to 1.2%)"
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "the striking decline of Klebsiella (from 20.1% to 0.6%)"
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "The rare fungal community before exposure to DCF was represented by the genera Malassezia (97.6%), Cladosporium (1.4%), and Talaromyces (0.9%)."
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "The genus Talaromyces dominated the community after complete DCF degradation (80.1%), followed by Aspergillus (15.1%) and a member of the Debaryomycetaceae family (4.8%)."

Associated Datasets

Dataset Type Repository Accession
Diclofenac MC 16S metabarcoding reads
ENA deposition for raw bacterial 16S rRNA V3/V4 amplicon reads collected from the microbial consortium at the beginning and after 28 days of the DCF biodegradation assay. 		AMPLICON_16S ENA PRJEB98466
Diclofenac MC ITS2 metabarcoding reads
ENA deposition for raw fungal ITS2 amplicon reads collected from the microbial consortium at the beginning and after 28 days of the DCF biodegradation assay. 		AMPLICON_ITS ENA PRJEB98466

Knowledge gaps & discussions (1)

KNOWLEDGE_GAP OPEN Which bacteria or fungi in the MC directly transform DCF, and which members instead bloom through indirect tolerance, glucose use, metabolite use, or release from competition?

The paper reports dominance shifts after DCF exposure but does not isolate MC members or run member-removal experiments that would assign parent-DCF cleavage to Burkholderia, Talaromyces, or the other taxa detected by amplicon sequencing. Relative profiles and parent loss do not establish division of labor or causation between these nodes. CSWD.1 and CSWD.2 are separate isolates, not assigned MC members. Endpoint mixture toxicity does not identify its causal metabolite; putative NO2-DCF lacked an analytical standard. Preserve the prior workflow-arrow removal.

Attaches to: taxonomy#Burkholderia, taxonomy#Talaromyces, ecological_interactions#Glucose-Amended Diclofenac Dissipation by MC, ecological_interactions#DCF-Selected Community Shift

External Resources

Name Repository Resource ID
Primary publication DOI
Journal of Xenobiotics 2026 open-access article describing the activated-sludge MC and its DCF biodegradation activity. 		OTHER doi:10.3390/jox16010024
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Biodegradation assays supplemented with glucose showed limited removal (45.5%) by CSWD.1, whereas CSWD.2 and the MC achieved complete elimination (100%) of 10 mg L-1 DCF in 21 and 5 days, respectively."

Environmental Factors

Factor Value Unit
DCF enrichment concentration 24 mg/L
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "sterile 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks (autoclave Auster-G, P-Selecta with one cycle at 120 °C, inlet pressure of 103 kPa, for 20 min) were inoculated with 10 mL of activated sludge and 150 mL of MSM, supplemented with DCF at an initial concentration of 24 mg L−1"
DCF biodegradation assay concentration 10 mg/L
  • PMID:41718267 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Biodegradation assays were conducted in sterile 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks covered with a cotton plug containing 50 mL of MSM solution supplemented with glucose (3 g L−1), spiked with 10 mg L−1 DCF sodium salt"

Growth Media

glucose-amended diclofenac MSM

pH 7.0 +/- 0.2
Temperature 30 °C
Atmosphere AEROBIC

Composition

Component Concentration Unit CHEBI
diclofenac sodium salt · MediaIngredientMech 10 mg/L CHEBI:4509
glucose · MediaIngredientMech 3 g/L CHEBI:4167

Preparation notes: MSM in the biodegradation assay was supplemented with 3 g/L glucose and spiked with 10 mg/L DCF sodium salt. The original enrichment used 10 mL of activated sludge plus 150 mL MSM with 24 mg/L DCF at pH 7.0 +/- 0.2, 30 °C, and 150 rpm.

Evidence

PMID:41718267

"A microbial consortium, along with individual strains capable of degrading DCF, was obtained through enrichment cultures using activated sludge from the San Jerónimo WWTP"

PMID:41718267

"sterile 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks (autoclave Auster-G, P-Selecta with one cycle at 120 °C, inlet pressure of 103 kPa, for 20 min) were inoculated with 10 mL of activated sludge and 150 mL of MSM, supplemented with DCF at an initial concentration of 24 mg L−1"

PMID:41718267

"Biodegradation assays were conducted in sterile 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks covered with a cotton plug containing 50 mL of MSM solution supplemented with glucose (3 g L−1), spiked with 10 mg L−1 DCF sodium salt"

PMID:41718267

"microbial consortium (MC), and (iv) abiotic control, all in triplicate. Treatments were incubated at 30 °C with orbital shaking at 180 rpm."

Cross-Mech Suite Links

Explore related entities across the CultureBotAI X-Mech knowledge bases:

HabitatMech: glucose-amended diclofenac activated-sludge enrichment ↗ TaxonMech: Burkholderia ↗ TraitMech: Burkholderia ↗ TaxonMech: Klebsiella ↗ TraitMech: Klebsiella ↗ TaxonMech: Ochrobactrum ↗ TraitMech: Ochrobactrum ↗ TaxonMech: Chthoniobacter ↗ TraitMech: Chthoniobacter ↗ TaxonMech: Parachlamydia ↗ TraitMech: Parachlamydia ↗ TaxonMech: Talaromyces ↗ TraitMech: Talaromyces ↗ CultureMech Growth Media ↗ PathwayMech Pathways ↗