## 2 Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) in the Ecosystems
### Microbial Remediation in Culture
#### 2.1.1 Bioremediation or Bacterial Remediation
The synergistic action of these processes with engineered _Escherichia coli_ cells transformed with an anchoring motif from _P. syringae_, allows for the complete mineralization of bisphenol A and NP [125]. Recently, 17\(\beta\)-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and its regulators were characterized [126]. _Bacillus thuringiensis_ is capable of degrading NPX, IBU, sulfonamides, trimethoprim, NP, TCS and GFZ, among others [127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 45, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213]. Recently, a new pathway for NPX utilization by _B. thuringiensis_ has been described [132]. Several _Sphingomonas_ are linked with successful PPCPs biodegradation [133, 134, 135, 136, 137]. They have been used as bioinocula in recovery processes with successful results [135, 138]. The use of nanoparticles in _Sphingomonas_ spp. could be a potential strategy for improving degradation [139]. Recently, it has been immobilized on polydopamine-coated Fe\({}_{3}\)O\({}_{4}\) iron nanoparticles, showing high  
Figure 2: Different mechanisms to PPCPs bioremoval, case of 17\(\alpha\)-ethinylestradiol from wastewater. **A**, hydrophobic bioadsorption [96]; **B**, Absorption and bacterial intracellular degradation [97, 98]; **C**, Absorption and microalgae intracellular degradation [99]; **D**, bioaccumulation [100]; **E**, extracellular degradation by lacase, other lignolytic enzymes do not seem to be involved [101, 102, 103]; **F**, intermediate metabolites secretion; **G**, synergistic degradation mediated by other microorganisms [39, 42, 104]; **H**, Desorption and mobilization by biosurfactants [105]; **I**, photodegradation coupled to biodegradation [106, 107, 108]; **J**, Degradative way by biogenic manganese oxides [109, 110]; and, **K**, adsorption to natural activated carbon [111]. Discontinuous lines probable degradative pathways, but not proven. efficacy in the elimination of NP polyethoxplates and during a greater number of cycles. Furthermore, separation and recycling were more readily achieved for immobilized cells as compared to free cells [137]. Figure 3: _Cont._  
Less frequently used (Figure 3A), but with a higher potential, we find other bacteria such as _Stenotrophomonas malophila_, which can degrade CBZ, triclocarban, TCS [119] and NP [140]. _S. maltoophilia_ can degrade NPX by co-metabolism and enzymatic induction [141]. _Acinetobacter_ sp. can degrade sulfadiazine, sulfamethazine (SMT) and SMX but with different mineralization efficiency [131] and degrade E2\(\alpha\) in cometabolization with other hormones [142]. The biotransformation of sulfonamides by _Arthobacter denitrificans_ gave high degradation values [143,144]. The draft genome from two sulfadiazine _Arthobacter_ bacteria has been compared with other bacteria genomes in a metagenomic approach that might help to identify the functional genes that are involved in degradation of these PPCPs [145]. _Achromobacter denitrificans_ bioaugmented into laboratory-scale membrane bioreactors increases the SMX degradation rates [146]. _Nitrosomonas europaea_ is an ammonia-oxidizing bacterium that is frequently associated with the degradation of hormones (e.g., [42]). Studies on the evolution of microbial populations in the presence of 17\(\beta\)-estradiol established a relationship between the presence of some bacteria (_Nitrosomonas_, _Bacillus_, _Pseudomonas_, _Splingomonas_, _Novosplingobium_, _Alcaligenes_, _Rhodanobacter_ and _Mycobacterium_) and the biomineralization of the contaminant [147,148]. The complete sequencing of different species of _Splingobium_ are being carried out to characterize and compare the expression activities of NP-degrader genes [149]. Recently, the _Cupriavidus_ sp.