Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

, Volume 89, Issue 6, pp 2005–2017 | Cite as

The effect of co-substrate activation on indigenous and bioaugmented PCB dechlorinating bacterial communities in sediment microcosms

  • Joong-Wook Park
  • Valdis Krumins
  • Birthe V. Kjellerup
  • Donna E. Fennell
  • Lisa A. Rodenburg
  • Kevin R. Sowers
  • Lee J. Kerkhof
  • Max M. Häggblom
Environmental Biotechnology
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

Microbial reductive dechlorination by members of the phylum Chloroflexi, including the genus Dehalococcoides, may play an important role in natural detoxification of highly chlorinated environmental pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Previously, we showed the increase of an indigenous bacterial population belonging to the Pinellas subgroup of Dehalococcoides spp. in Anacostia River sediment (Washington DC, USA) microcosms treated with halogenated co-substrates (“haloprimers”), tetrachlorobenzene (TeCB), or pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB). The PCNB-amended microcosms exhibited enhanced dechlorination of weathered PCBs, while TeCB-amended microcosms did not. We therefore developed and used different phylogenetic approaches to discriminate the effect of the two different haloprimers. We also developed complementary approaches to monitor the effects of haloprimer treatments on 12 putative reductive dehalogenase (rdh) genes common to Dehalococcoides ethenogenes strain 195 and Dehalococcoides sp. strain CBDB1. Our results indicate that 16S rRNA gene-based phylogenetic analyses have a limit in their ability to distinguish the effects of two haloprimer treatments and that two of rdh genes were present in high abundance when microcosms were amended with PCNB, but not TeCB. rdh gene-based phylogenetic analysis supports that these two rdh genes originated from the Pinellas subgroup of Dehalococcoides spp., which corresponds to the 16S rRNA gene-based phylogenetic analysis.

Keywords

PCB Dehalogenation Dechlorination Dehalococcoides rdh genes Sediments 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

This project was funded by SERDP grant number ER-1492. We thank Professor Danny Reible, University of Texas at Austin, for supplying Anacostia River sediment.

Supplementary material

253_2010_2958_MOESM1_ESM.doc (48 kb)
ESM 1 (DOC 47.5 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Joong-Wook Park
    • 1
  • Valdis Krumins
    • 2
  • Birthe V. Kjellerup
    • 4
  • Donna E. Fennell
    • 2
  • Lisa A. Rodenburg
    • 2
  • Kevin R. Sowers
    • 5
  • Lee J. Kerkhof
    • 3
  • Max M. Häggblom
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Biochemistry and MicrobiologyRutgers, The State University of New JerseyNew BrunswickUSA
  2. 2.Department of Environmental SciencesRutgers, The State University of New JerseyNew BrunswickUSA
  3. 3.Institute of Marine and Coastal SciencesRutgers, The State University of New JerseyNew BrunswickUSA
  4. 4.Department of Biological SciencesGoucher CollegeBaltimoreUSA
  5. 5.Center of Marine BiotechnologyUniversity of Maryland Biotechnology InstituteBaltimoreUSA

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