Progress in microbial degradation of sulfamethoxazole

Antibiotics are regarded as a new group of environmental pollutants in recent years because of they are difficult to degrade and highly ecotoxic even in low concentrations. More and more attentions have been paid to their residues and removals in environmental. With the wide use, sulfamethoxazole residual and the detection frequency in wastewater is increasing. As one of the few microbial degradable antibiotics, sulfamethoxazole degraded by microbes is one of the most promising methods. This article summarizes the degradation efficiency and degradation conditions of sulfamethoxazole by different soil, sediment, activated sludge, mixed flora, enzymes and isolated strains. Meanwhile, degradation pathways reported in the literature are summarized. Two specific factors affecting the degradation of sulfamethoxazole are also discussed. Finally, we look forward to the perspective of molecular biology and bioinformatics in new researches, as well as the construction of degrading bacterial consortium from different pollutants in future applications.