O emission, and slower bacterial growth. Intracellular ATP fell by 12.5%, and both ΔΨ and ΔpH declined, indicating impairment of proton motive force homeostasis. The upstream membrane-associated electron transport system showed no significant change, but the periplasmic denitrification electron-transfer process was strongly inhibited. Docking analysis located APAP near the proton-channel region of ATPase, and the change in ATPase activity was consistent with impaired cellular energy conservation. These results indicate that APAP restricts heterotrophic denitrification mainly through bioenergetic constraint and impaired periplasmic electron transfer. The work provides a mechanistic basis for evaluating how pharmaceutical residues may weaken biological nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment systems.
Dong et al. (Thu,) studied this question.