Degradation of sulfonamide antibiotics by Microbacterium sp. strain BR1 – elucidating the downstream pathway

•The main intermediates in the sulfonamide downstream pathway were identified.•p-Aminophenol appears not to be directly linked to sulfonamide degradation.•Reactive intermediates are rather quickly degraded. Microbacterium sp. strain BR1 is among the first bacterial isolates which were proven to degrade sulfonamide antibiotics. The degradation is initiated by an ipso-substitution, initiating the decay of the molecule into sulfur dioxide, the substrate specific heterocyclic moiety as a stable metabolite and benzoquinone imine. The latter appears to be instantaneously reduced to p-aminophenol, as that in turn was detected as the first stable intermediate. This study investigated the downstream pathway of sulfonamide antibiotics by testing the strain's ability to degrade suspected intermediates of this pathway. While p-aminophenol was degraded, degradation products could not be identified. Benzoquinone was shown to be degraded to hydroquinone and hydroquinone in turn was shown to be degraded to 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene. The latter is assumed to be the potential substrate for aromatic ring cleavage. However, no products from the degradation of 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene could be identified. There are no signs of accumulation of intermediates causing oxidative stress, which makes Microbacterium sp. strain BR1 an interesting candidate for industrial waste water treatment.