Pristine environments degradative bacteria

Degradation of contaminants may occur with bacteria that have been isolated from pristine environments without established exposure to the contaminants, and exhibit no dependence on substrate concentration. For example, organisms from a previously unexposed forest soil were able to degrade 2,4,6-trichlorophenol at concentrations up to 5000 ppm, and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis revealed that at concentrations up to 500 ppm, the bacterial community was unaltered (Sanchez et al. 2004). 

Kamagata Y, RR Fulthorpe, K Tamura, H Takami, LJ Forney, JM Tiedje (1997) Pristine environments harbor a new group of oligotrophic 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid-degrading bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 63 2266-2272. 

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