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Furfural (Furan-2-carbaldehyde) is a potentially toxic substance. Indigenous bacterial strains naturally adapted to that contaminant were previously isolated from the effluent of a tannin industry and identified as Microbacterium sp., Bacillus licheniformis and Brevundimonas sp. The aim of this work was to determine the maximum concentration of furfural that can be degraded by bacterial consortium metabolism. The colonies were activated in peptone solution and then in a mineral medium with glucose as co-substrate, adding the bacterial consortium and different concentrations of furfural. They were incubated in a shaker during 72 hours at 30 ºC and 200 rpm. Bacterial growth was monitored by measuring absorbance at 610 nm. The concentration of furfural was analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography. The consortium was able to grow in furfural concentration of up to 4516 mg L-1. Up to 2723 mg L-1 can be degraded in 24 hours. According to these results, a considerable furfural consumption increase is possible with a consortium.

One of the relevant areas in microbiology and biotechnology is the study of microorganisms that induce the destruction of different materials, buildings, and machines and lead to negative effects. At the same time, the positive ecological effects of degradation can be explained by the detoxication of industrial and agricultural wastes, chemical substances, petroleum products, xenobiotics, pesticides, and other chemical pollutants. Many of these industrial wastes include hard-to-degrade components, such as lignocellulose or plastics. The biosynthesis of natural products based on the transformation of lignocellulosic wastes is of particular interest. One of the world’s unique ecosystems is presented by Lake Baikal. This ecosystem is characterized by the highest level of biodiversity, low temperatures, and a high purity of the water. Here, we studied the ability of several psychrophilic representatives of Baikal Actinobacteria to grow on sawdust wastes and transform them into bioactive natural products. Different strains of both widely spread genus of Actinobacteria and rare genera of Actinobacteria were tested. We used the LC-MS methods to show that Actinobacteria living in sawmill wastes can produce both known and novel natural products with antibiotic activity. We demonstrated that the type of sawmill wastes and their concentration influence the Actinobacteria biosynthetic potential. We have shown for the first time that the use of Baikal psychrophilic microorganisms as a factory for biodegradation is applicable for the transformation of lignocellulosic wastes. Thus, the development of techniques for screening novel natural products leads to an elaboration on the active ingredients for novel drugs.