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Updated: Aug 20, 2025

Extraction of Structural Extracellular Polymeric Substances from Aerobic Granular Sludge
Published on: September 26, 2016
Extracellular polymeric substances-antibiotics interaction in activated sludge: A review
Weixin Zhao1, Jia You1, Shilei Yin1
1State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resources and Environment (SKLUWRE), School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China.
Abstract:
Antibiotics, the most frequently prescribed drugs, have been widely applied to prevent or cure human and veterinary diseases and have undoubtedly led to massive releases into sewer networks and wastewater treatment systems, a hotspot where the occurrence and transformation of antibiotic resistance take place. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), biopolymers secreted via microbial activity, play an important role in cell adhesion, nutrient retention, and toxicity resistance. However, the potential roles of sludge EPS related to the resistance and removal of antibiotics are still unclear. This work summarizes the composition and physicochemical characteristics of state-of-the-art microbial EPS, highlights the critical role of EPS in antibiotics removal, evaluates their defense performances under different antibiotics exposures, and analyzes the typical factors that could affect the sorption and biotransformation behavior of antibiotics. Next, interactions between microbial EPS and antibiotic resistance genes are analyzed. Future perspectives, especially the engineering application of microbial EPS for antibiotics toxicity detection and defense, are also emphatically stressed.
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