Human gut bacteria bioaccumulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
Journal article, 2025
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent pollutants that pose major environmental and health concerns. While few environmental bacteria have been reported to bind PFAS, the interaction of PFAS with human-associated gut bacteria is unclear. Here we report the bioaccumulation of PFAS by 38 gut bacterial strains ranging in concentration from nanomolar to 500 μM. Bacteroides uniformis showed notable PFAS accumulation resulting in millimolar intracellular concentrations while retaining growth. In Escherichia coli, bioaccumulation increased in the absence of the TolC efflux pump, indicating active transmembrane transport. Cryogenic focused ion beam secondary-ion mass spectrometry confirmed intracellular localization of the PFAS perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) in E. coli. Proteomic and metabolomic analysis of PFNA-treated cells, and the mutations identified following laboratory evolution, support these findings. Finally, mice colonized with human gut bacteria showed higher PFNA levels in excreted faeces than germ-free controls or those colonized with low-bioaccumulating bacteria. Together, our findings uncover the high PFAS bioaccumulation capacity of gut bacteria.
Author
Anna E. Lindell
University of Cambridge
Anne Grießhammer
University of Tübingen
Lena Michaelis
University of Tübingen
Dimitrios Papagiannidis
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Hannah Ochner
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Stephan Kamrad
University of Cambridge
Rui Guan
University of Cambridge
Sonja Blasche
University of Cambridge
Leandro N. Ventimiglia
King's College London
Bini Ramachandran
University of Cambridge
Hilal Ozgur
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Aleksej Zelezniak
Vilnius University
Chalmers, Life Sciences, Systems and Synthetic Biology
King's College London
Nonantzin Beristain-Covarrubias
University of Cambridge
Juan Carlos Yam-Puc
University of Cambridge
Indra Roux
University of Cambridge
Leon P. Barron
Imperial College London
Alexandra K. Richardson
Imperial College London
Maria Guerra Martin
University of Cambridge
Vladimir Benes
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Nobuhiro Morone
University of Cambridge
James E.D. Thaventhiran
University of Cambridge
Tanmay A.M. Bharat
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Mikhail M. Savitski
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Lisa Maier
University of Tübingen
K. R. Patil
University of Cambridge
Nature Microbiology
2058-5276 (eISSN)
Vol. 10 7 1630-1647Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Microbiology
Environmental Sciences
DOI
10.1038/s41564-025-02032-5
PubMed
40595288