Phenanthrene-degrading bacteria

Aitken MD, WT Stringfellow, RD Nagel, C Kazuga, S-H Chen (1998) Characteristics of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria isolated from soils contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Can J Microbiol 44 143-152. 

Bogardt AH, BB Hemmingsen (1992) Enumeration of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria by an overlay technique and its use in evaluation of petroleum-contaminated sites. Appl Environ Microbiol 58 2579-2582. 

Fig. 9. Growth of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria (Burkholderia sp. RP007) in the presence of either phenanthrene in the free form (A), or phenanthrene intercalated into tetradecyltrimethylammonium (TDTMA)-montmorillonite (B). After Theng et al. (2001).

Guerin, W. F. Jones, G. E. (1989). Estuarine ecology of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science, 29, 115-30. 

West, P. A., Okpokwasili, G.C., Brayton, P. R., Grimes, D.J. Colwell, R. R. (1984). Numerical taxonomy of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria isolated from the Chesapeake Bay. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 48, 988-93. 

Han et al. (2003) [91] used ARDRA to screen 36 strains of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria that were isolated from polycychc aromatic hydrocarbon-... 

The intercalated phenanthrene is not bioavailable, at least over the 11-day period of incubation (Fig. 9) because it is intimately and strongly associated with TDTMA in the montmorillonite interlayers as well as being physically inaccessible to PAH-degrading bacteria (e.g. Burkholderia) and their enzymes. By contrast, these bacteria can use free (non-intercalated) Ph as a carbon and energy source (Theng et al. 2001). 

Willumsen and Karlson [125] screened 57 PAH-degrading bacteria isolated from PAH-contaminated soil for the production of biosurfactant compounds. The majority of the strains isolated on phenanthrene, pyrene, and fluoranthene were better emulsifiers than surface-tension reducers, and the stability of the... 

Assessment of Toxicity. Dilution tests were performed to examine a possible toxicity phenomenon. In these tests surfactant solutions were diluted to concentrations below those resulting in micelle formation by addition of water or soil and water. Such dilution was observed to result in the recovery of the phenanthrene-degrading ability in the soil-water systems. This recovery suggested that the presence of surfactant micelles did not result in cell lysis or destruction, and that the inhibition may be attributable to some reversible surfactant-bacteria interaction. 

Zhao Z, Selvam A,Wong JW. Effects of rhamnolipids on cell surface hydrophobicity of PAH degrading bacteria and the biodegradation of phenanthrene. BioresourTechnol 2011 102 3999-4007. 

Bacteria isolated from marine macrofaunal burrow sediments and assigned to Lutibac-terium anuloederans were able to degrade phenanthrene in a heavily contaminated sediment (Chung and King 2001). 

An important development has been the isolation of bacteria that were able to degrade phenan-threne that was sorbed to humic acid material (Vacca et al 2005). Enrichment was carried ont with PAH-contaminated soils using phenanthrene sorbed to commercial hnmic acid. Only the strains isolated from this enrichment were able to carry ont degradation of C-labeled phenanthrene, and this exceeded by factors of 4-9 the amonnt estimated to be available from the aqneons phase alone. It was snggested that specially adapted bacteria might interact specifically with natnrally occnrring colloidal material. 

Vacca DJ, WF Bleam, WJ Hickey (2005) Isolation of soil bacteria adapted to degrade humic acid-sorbed phenanthrene. Appl Environ Microbiol 71 3797-3805. 

Samanta SK, AK Chakraborti, RK Jain (1999) Degradation of phenanthrene by different bacteria evidence for novel transformation sequences involving the formation of 1-naphthol. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 53 98-107. 

Both procaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms have the enzymatic potential to oxidize aromatic hydrocarbons that range in size from a single ring (e.g., benzene, toluene and xylene) to polycyclic aromatics (PC As), such as naphthalane, anthracene, phenanthrene, benzo [a] pyrene and benz [a] anthracene (Table 4.4). However, the molecular mechanisms by which bacteria and higher microorganisms degrade aromatic compounds are fundamentally different. 

The plasmids and operons described above represent the most studied ones, but probably constitute a small fraction of the catabolic operons in bacteria. In one study, 43 bacterial strains (mostly Pseudomonas spp.) from different sources, shown to possess the ability to degrade aromatic and PAHs, were hybridized with probes of NAH and TOL plasmids as well as with genomic DNA of bacteria known to degrade a wide variety of PAHs. Only 14 strains that mineralized naphthalene and phenanthrene showed homology to one of the probes. The remaining isolates mineralized and/or oxidized various PAHs and hybridized with neither pure plasmids nor genomic DNA (Foght Westlake, 1991). 

Some examples for PAH compounds suggest that decreased solubility and non-aqueous-phase partitioning and sorption processes are restrictive toward microbial degradation. Wodzinski and Bertolini (16) and Wodzinski and Coyle (17) concluded that bacteria utilize naphthalene, biphenyl, and phenanthrene as dissolved solutes, with the rate of biodegradation independent of the total amount of solid-phase hydrocarbon. Stucki and Alexander (18) found that the dissolution rate of phenanthrene may limit the biodegradation rate. 

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