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Isolation and characterization of autotrophic, hydrogen-utilizing, perchlorate-reducing bacteria

  • Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology
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Abstract

Recent studies have shown that perchlorate (ClO4 −) can be degraded by some pure-culture and mixed-culture bacteria with the addition of hydrogen. This paper describes the isolation of two hydrogen-utilizing perchlorate-degrading bacteria capable of using inorganic carbon for growth. These autotrophic bacteria are within the genus Dechloromonas and are the first Dechloromonas species that are microaerophilic and incapable of growth at atmospheric oxygen concentrations. Dechloromonas sp. JDS5 and Dechloromonas sp. JDS6 are the first perchlorate-degrading autotrophs isolated from a perchlorate-contaminated site. Measured hydrogen thresholds were higher than for other environmentally significant, hydrogen-utilizing, anaerobic bacteria (e.g., halorespirers). The chlorite dismutase activity of these bacteria was greater for autotrophically grown cells than for cells grown heterotrophically on lactate. These bacteria used fumarate as an alternate electron acceptor, which is the first report of growth on an organic electron acceptor by perchlorate-reducing bacteria.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the United States Army Operations Command (grant program DAAA09-00-C-0016) and the University of Iowa–National Science Foundation Research Training Grant (DBI-96-02247). Special thanks are due to Romy Chakraborty, Kimberly A. Cole, Jay Pollock, and John D. Coates of Southern Illinois University and University of California–Berkeley for their assistance and for providing D. agitata strain CKB. Andrew Hawkins and Caroline S. Harwood provided assistance with molecular techniques. Craig Just provided assistance with analytical measurements.

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  1. Joshua D. Shrout

    Present address: Department of Microbiology, The University of Iowa, 540 EMRB, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA

    Joshua D. Shrout & Gene F. Parkin

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and The Coordinated Laboratory for Computational Genomics, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA

    Todd E. Scheetz & Thomas L. Casavant

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  1. Joshua D. Shrout
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  2. Todd E. Scheetz
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Correspondence to Joshua D. Shrout.

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Shrout, J.D., Scheetz, T.E., Casavant, T.L. et al. Isolation and characterization of autotrophic, hydrogen-utilizing, perchlorate-reducing bacteria. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 67, 261–268 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-004-1725-0

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