Halogenated aromatic compounds microbial degradation

Sahrn, H., Brunner, M. Schobert, S.M. (1986) Anaerobic degradation of halogenated aromatic compounds. Microbial Ecol. 12., 147-153... 

Reinke, W., Microbial degradation of halogenated aromatic compounds, in Microbial Degradation of Organic Compounds, Gibson, D.T., Ed., Marcel Dekker, New York, 1984, pp. 319-360. 

Thus the microbial activity is chiefly responsible for the mineralization of halogenated compounds, which enter into a variety of natural habitats. The toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic effects of various chlorinated compoxmds make studies of these compounds at various levels, extremely important. As excellent recent reviews on the microbial degradation of halogenated aromatics are available [5-8], a brief description of tiie degradation of some important chloroaromatics, with available enzymological studies, will be presented. 

Enrichment culture techniques can also be used for bioremediation to detoxify xenobiotic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heterocyclic polyaromatics, and halogenated aromatics in soils and sediments through microbial degradation. An effective way to do this is by isolating microbes through enrichment cultures with the substrate one wants to detoxify as a limiting compound. Once this is proven in the laboratory, it can be taken full-scale to the field. 

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