Use of Ganoderma lucidum Grown on Agricultural Waste to Remove Antibiotics from Water

Abstract

Abstract Antibiotic-rich effluents from farming and medical applications into waterways pose a serious risk for antibiotic drug resistance, promoting a need for effective strategies of removal from the food chain and the environment. In this work, we show proof-of-concept laboratory-scale bioremediation experiments to remove antibiotics in synthetic wastewater. A white rot fungus, Ganoderma lucidum, was grown on biomass formed by agricultural waste from California (almond shells, cover crop stalks). Water containing or lacking Ganoderma lucidum was inoculated with twenty antibiotics from six different classes. The extent of antibiotic removal was measured at baseline and after 3 days with ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass-spectrometry. The data were analyzed with a two-way repeated ANOVA for 17 antibiotics data sets meeting residuals' normality, and a mixed-effects model for 3 antibiotics sets that did not. Treatment with mycelial biomass caused a statistically significant reduction, compared to the baseline, in the concentration in 3 quinolones and 2 sulfonamides, after just 3 days. Our findings provide a first proof-of-concept to bioremediate certain antibiotics, (particularly quinolones), in synthetic wastewater and with repurposed agricultural waste.