## 2 Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) in the Ecosystems
### Microbial Remediation in Culture
#### 2.1.1 Bioremediation or Bacterial Remediation  
A total of 271 papers were found in this section. In 78% of them, the prokaryotes were used in advanced remediation systems, such as active sludge, bioreactors or constructed wetlands. Most pharmaceuticals are toxic to bacterial strains (especially antibiotics), but some naturally occurring bacteria have the ability to biodegrade these contaminants. Thereby, bacteria isolates from water, soil and sediment (usually contaminated) have been used to remove the frequently detected PPCPs [39]. They are able to remove the pollutants by aerobic and anaerobic oxidative degradation, intra and extracellular degradation, and biosorption (absorption and adsorption) (Figure 2). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt}} \hline \hline
**Phylum** & **Species** & **Mixture Type** & **Endpoint/Biomarker Effect** & **Reference** \\ \hline \hline \multirow{8}{*}{Nematoda} & Soil nematode community & Hormones & Number of nematodes was decreased and change the sex ratio in a free-living nematode community & [91] \\ \cline{2-5}  & & Antibiotics + Anticonvulsants + Antipsychotic, antielectic + Beta blockers + Psychominant + Component in plastic and epoxy resins + Diuretic + Fragances + Hormones + Lipid regulators + Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs + Preservatives & The diversity and structure of the soil nematode community & [92] \\ \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Arthropoda} & \multirow{2}{*}{_Eisenia andrei_} & Antibiotics + Psychominant + Hormones + Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs & Increase developmental time of larvae. Altered the mosquito bacterial microbiome & [94] \\ \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Magnolioophyte} & _Allium cpa_ & Hair dyes & Cytotoxic and mutagenic & [64] \\ \cline{2-5}  & \multirow{2}{*}{_Tritcium aestivum L_} & Analgesic and antipyretic drug & Wheat shoot and root elongation decreased. The antioxidative defensive system in roots was damaged & [24] \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Effects of different types of mixture of PPCPs on several species of terrestrial organisms. The acclimatization of prokaryotes is an essential factor to improve the effectiveness of the process. Many of the enzymes involved in the PPCPs removal are inducible so that a previous contact of the microorganisms with the PPCPs is important. For example, the presence of TCS induces the production of ammonia monooxygenase, which can degrade this compound [112]. However, constitutive systems such as oxidation through cytochrome P\({}_{450}\) via [113, 114] or bacterial aerobic lignocellulosic enzymes [115, 116], are also involved in bacterial degradative processes. Other mechanisms for the removal of PPCPs have been described (Figure 2), for example, desorption and mobilization by biosurfactants [105]; photodegradation coupled to biodegradation [106, 108, 117] and a degradative pathway by biogenic manganese oxides [109, 110]. Most of the PPCPs-degrader bacteria belong to the Proteobacteria or Actinobacteria group, although _Planococcus_ (little used) and _Bacillus_ genera (Figure 3A), both Firmicutes, are used less frequently. All in all, whenever the degradation capacity of a microorganism is detected in the laboratory, it is evaluated as beging potentially useful in biotechnology. Thus, bacterial taxa have been first studied in the laboratory and subsequently applied in situ, except for Actinobacteria that, frequently, have been directly identified in active sludge or bioreactors (Figure 3A). Among the most used, _Pseudomonas_ spp. can be highlighted since they are able to degrade, among other compounds, CBZ, TCS, cephalexin, CFN, SMX and diagnostic contrast media [118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123]. A 47% degradation of CBZ in 20 days was reported by _Pseudomonas_ species [124]. _P. putida_ activates the successful degradation of 17\(\alpha\)-ethinylestradioliol (E2\(\alpha\)) through redox reactions mediated biogenic manganese oxide [109, 110] (Figure 2).