Metabolomics and molecular simulation reveal the responding mechanism of anammox consortia to perfluorooctanoic acid by regulating metabolic network

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is ubiquitous in aquatic environment, posing serious threats to human health, while the potential of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process in treating PFOA-containing wastewater and the response mechanism of anammox consortia to PFOA remain unknown. In this study, the comprehensive effects of PFOA on anammox granules and their interaction mechanism were investigated based on molecular simulation and metabolomic analysis. The environmental concentrations (≤2.0 mg/L) of PFOA had no impact on the anammox process performance. However, microbial consortia structure and functional gene abundances changed under the exposure of PFOA. By contrast, Prokaryotes were more sensitive to PFOA than eukaryotes. In addition, PFOA regulated microbial metabolic pathways, including amino acid metabolism and nucleotide metabolism, by changing the cell energy allocation strategy. Molecular docking simulation suggested that the effects of PFOA on key proteins in anammox bacteria were significantly different. These findings provide insights into the interaction between anammox consortia and PFOA, and further promote the implementation of anammox process to treat fluorine-containing wastewater.