Environmental fate of tetracycline antibiotics: degradation pathway mechanisms, challenges, and perspectives

Abstract

Tetracycline pollution is a growing global threat to aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity due to its unprecedented use in aquaculture, livestock, and human disease prevention. The influx of tetracycline may annihilate the microbial ecology structure in the environment and pose a severe threat to humans by disturbing the food chain. Although significant research data are available in the literature on various aspects of tetracycline, including detection techniques, degradation mechanisms, degradation products, and policy statements to curtail the issue, there is a scarcity of a report to compile the recent data in the literature for better analysis and comparison by the policymakers. To achieve this paucity in knowledge, the current study aims at collecting data on the available degradation strategies, mechanisms involved in biodegradable and non-biodegradable routes, the main factor affecting degradation strategies, compile novel detection techniques of tetracycline antibiotics in the environment, discuss antibiotic resistance genes and their potential role in degradation. Finally, limitations in the current bioremediation techniques and the future prospects are discussed with pointers for the decision-makers for a safer environment.

Dissipation Dynamics of Doxycycline and Gatifloxacin and Accumulation of Heavy Metals during Broiler Manure Aerobic Composting

“…A possible explanation could be that a large fraction of the Tetracyclines instantaneously binds to solid particles and that, as a consequence, only part is available for the dissipation processes, which has previously been suggested to be an enzymatic process. The strong binding delays the biodegrada-tion [28], and thus, Tetracyclines can persist in manure for a long time. However, another study showed that antibiotics from the group of Tetracyclines are unstable because of their unique chemical structure and may undergo abiotic degradation conditions, such as pH, temperature, redox, and light conditions, and then generate degradation products through epimerization, dehydration, or other pathways [29].…”

Nanopore Technology and Its Applications in Gene Sequencing

“…In recent years, the antibiotic resistance of bacteria has become a threat to aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity [108]. Also, it is crucial to investigate the resistance gene in bacteria with the gene sequencing method.…”

Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline in Aqueous Solution Using Copper Sulfide Nanoparticles

“…Furthermore, there will be an increase in the concentration of TC molecules adsorbed on the surface of the photocatalyst as the initial TC concentration increased. The high concentration of adsorbed TC resulted in an inhibitive effect on the reaction of TC molecules with photogenerated holes or hydroxyl radicals due to the lack of any direct contact between them [58]. The increase in internal optical density makes the solution become impervious to visible light, which is another reason for obtaining lower degradation efficiency at higher TC concentration.…”