Application of Antioxidant Indicators to Select Nicotine-Degrading Bacterium for Bioaugmented Treatment of Tobacco Wastewater

Abstract

To select nicotine-degrading bacterium for bioaugmented treatment of tobacco wastewater, the activities of antioxidant indicators such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione (GSH), and the ability to treat pollutants including nicotine degradation and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, were compared between Acinetobacter sp. TW and Sphingomonas sp. TY. When complicated toxins were present, the activities of SOD induced in strain TY were significantly higher than those in strain TW. However, the activities of CAT were inhibited in strain TY (CAT/CATLB < 1), but upregulated in strain TW (CAT/CATLB > 1). Additionally, the levels of GSH induced in strain TW were significantly higher than those in strain TY. These findings suggest that the antioxidant ability of strain TW was higher than that of strain TY, especially in tobacco wastewater. Moreover, when applied to the treatment of tobacco wastewater, the rate of nicotine degradation at 24 h was 99.50% for TW and 28.76% for TY, while the rate of COD removal at 48 h was 62.69% for TW and 45.80% for TY. Taken together, these findings indicate that the pollution treatment ability of strain TW was stronger than that of TY, and that the stronger the ability of the antioxidant, the higher the potential for treatment of tobacco wastewater.