The main aim of this project is to provide novel insights into the microbial metabolism and bioremediation of pesticides contained in wastewaters from the fruit packaging industry. This will be achieved via a series of scientific and technological objectives which go beyond the state of the art in the field:

1.     Elucidation of the microbial metabolic pathway of ortho-phenylphenol, diphenylamine and thiabendazole, pesticides contained in the wastewaters from the fruit packaging industry using a multidisciplinary approach including genomics, proteomics, metagenomics and high resolution analysis

2.       Isolation of key pesticide detoxification enzymes with potential biotechnological downstream applications

3.       Identification of novel pesticide catabolic genes via soil metagenomics

4.       Bioremediation of pesticide polluted wastewater disposal sites via in situ bioaugmentation

5.     Development and optimization of start-up microbial inocula for the future implementation of biological treatment systems for the wastewaters produced by the fruit packaging industry.