Use of Ganoderma lucidum grown on agricultural waste to remove antibiotics from water

Antibiotic effluents from farming and medical applications into waterways pose serious risks for antibiotic drug resistance, promoting a need for effective strategies of removal from the environment. This experiment uses a novel mycoremediation approach to remove antibiotic contamination in synthetic wastewater. A white rot fungus, Ganoderma lucidum, was grown on biomass formed by agricultural waste from California (almond shells, fava bean 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. In water containing Ganoderma lucidum mycelial biomass, we found a significant reduction compared to the baseline of the concentration in six (three quinolones and three sulfonamides) out of twenty tested antibiotics by Day 3, with normalized changes ranging from -24.4% to -82.4%. The mycelial biomass was particularly effective in reducing the presence of three quinolone antibiotics, a class of highly used antibiotics recalcitrant to processes in wastewater treatment plants. Our findings provide a novel approach to degrade certain antibiotics from water. This strategy could become a key component of removing antibiotic pollution using agricultural waste as part of the solution.