Environmental Distribution of Bisphenol A

Aromatic compounds - deriving from e.g., lignocellulose containing wood compound degradation - are widely distributed in the environment and can be degraded aerobically as well as anaerobically. However, manmade polymeric materials like plastics resist degradation. These compounds can also contain amendments that improve product quality but exhibit adverse effects on human health. One of these additives is Bisphenol A (BPA) which is used for the production of e.g., polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. It is an endocrine-disrupting chemical (endocrine disruptor) showing oestrogen- like effects in humans. So far, data on its environmental distribution in Austria are missing and studies on the effect of BPA on microbes are rare. The present project therefore focuses on the following objectives: The main aim of this project is to make aware of the universal distribution of bisphenol A in the environment: Via a public sampling approach, any kind of sample that possibly contains BPA is sent to the lab where BPA concentrations are determined. A map of the different sample locations and their respective BPA concentrations is created. Via a lab approach, microbial BPA tolerance will be tested. Microbes, isolated from sample material, will be subjected to the chemical and surviving strains will be singled, cultivated and systematically characterized. Their degradation ability will be determined. Pure cultures or microbial consortia showing high degradation ability will be used for further cultivation experiments. Those microbiomes will be subjected to both, aerobic and anaerobic degradation tests for other, also potentially problematic aromatic compounds present in the environment. A mixture of analytical, classical microbiological and highly modern approaches will be applied including aerobic and anaerobic cultivation of pure and mixed cultures, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as well as molecular biological methods like Amplicon-Sequencing to obtain data on the metagenome, including the respective data analyses and processing techniques.