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Biodegradation of BTEX Aromatics by a Haloduric Microbial Consortium Enriched from a Sediment of Bohai Sea, China

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Abstract

This study focused on a haloduric BTEX-degrading microbial consortium EC20 enriched from Bohai Sea sediment. EC20 degraded 87% of BTEX at 435 mg L−1 initial concentration (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes in equal proportions) in the presence of 3.4% NaCl. 16S rRNA gene-based PCR-DGGE profiles revealed that the dominant bacteria in EC20 were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes at the phylum level, and Pseudomonas, Mesorhizobium, Achromobacter, Stenotrophomonas, and Halomonas at the genus level. PCR detection of genes coding the key enzymes which participated in BTEX degradation pathways showed that the enriched consortium EC20 contained TOL pathway and TOD pathway to initiate biodegradation of BTEX.

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Acknowledgment

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 31270533).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of AgroBiotechnology and MOA Key Laboratory of Soil Microbiology, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People’s Republic of China

    Yue Deng, Fenglong Yang, Chunping Deng, Jinshui Yang & Hongli Yuan

  2. National Research Center for Geoanalysis, Beijing, China

    Jing Jia

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  1. Yue Deng
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Deng, Y., Yang, F., Deng, C. et al. Biodegradation of BTEX Aromatics by a Haloduric Microbial Consortium Enriched from a Sediment of Bohai Sea, China. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 183, 893–905 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-017-2471-y

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