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Water scarcity is one of the major challenges of this century, and new alternative water sources, such as wastewater, must be considered. However, wastewater contamination with pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) must be avoided. In this work, the biofiltration capacity of the invasive bivalve Corbicula fluminea on the mixture of five parabens removal, including both the clams' reusability and their shell's adsorption capacity. Additionally, other parameters such as the number of clams per volume and clams size were assessed using a mixture with different PPCPs. The results demonstrated that biofiltration can be relevant for wastewater treatment. At a clam-to-volume ratio of 1:160 (1 L per 160 clams), removal efficiencies after 8 h reached about 60% for paracetamol, 80% for propylparaben, and 100% for methylparaben. Notably, sulfamethoxazole and carbamazepine were bioaccumulated in the soft tissues of the clams, as evidenced by their release into clean water after biofiltration experiments. The impact of selected PPCP exposure on the microbiome of clams' soft tissue was also evaluated, through colony-forming unit (CFU) counts, as well as characterization of community composition and prediction of functional. The results showed that PPCP exposure led to an overall reduction in CFU counts and induced significant shifts in the microbial community, favoring resistant or metabolically flexible bacterial taxa such as Unassigned Bacteroidia , Aeromonas , and Pseudomonas . Functional predictions indicated enrichment of pathways related to xenobiotic degradation, membrane transport, and stress responses, highlighting the microbiome’s adaptive capacity to chemical stress. These findings underscore the ecological role of clam-associated microbial communities in mitigating PPCPs contamination in aquatic environments.
Domingues et al. (Sat,) studied this question.