Biodegradation

, Volume 24, Issue 5, pp 699–709 | Cite as

Phenol degradation by halophilic bacteria isolated from hypersaline environments

  • Maricy Raquel Lindenbah Bonfá
  • Matthew James Grossman
  • Francine Piubeli
  • Encarnación Mellado
  • Lucia Regina Durrant
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Phenol is a toxic aromatic compound used or produced in many industries and as a result a common component of industrial wastewaters. Phenol containing waste streams are frequently hypersaline and therefore require halophilic microorganisms for efficient biotreatment without dilution. In this study three halophilic bacteria isolated from different saline environments and identified as Halomonas organivorans, Arhodomonas aquaeolei and Modicisalibacter tunisiensis were shown to be able to grow on phenol in hypersaline media containing 100 g/L of total salts at a concentration of 3 mM (280 mg/L), well above the concentration found in most waste streams. Genes encoding the aromatic dioxygenase enzymes catechol 1,2 dioxygenase and protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase were present in all strains as determined by PCR amplification using primers specific for highly conserved regions of the genes. The gene for protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase was cloned from the isolated H. organivorans and the translated protein was evaluated by comparative protein sequence analysis with protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase proteins from other microorganisms. Although the analysis revealed a wide range of sequence divergence among the protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase family, all of the conserved domain amino acid structures identified for this enzyme family are identical or conservatively substituted in the H. organivorans enzyme.

Keywords

Phenol Biodegradation Hypersaline Halophile Halomonas Arhodomonas Modicisalibacter Catechol 1,2 dioxygenase Protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We thank the Coordinator for the Improvement of Personnel in Higher Education (CAPES, Brazil), the National Council for the Development of Science and Technology (CNPq), and the Foundation for the Support of Science in São Paulo State (FAPESP) for financial support.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Maricy Raquel Lindenbah Bonfá
    • 1
  • Matthew James Grossman
    • 1
  • Francine Piubeli
    • 1
  • Encarnación Mellado
    • 2
  • Lucia Regina Durrant
    • 1
  1. 1.Departamento de Ciência de Alimentos-FEAUniversidade Estadual de Campinas-UNICAMPCampinasBrazil
  2. 2.Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of PharmacyUniversity of SevillaSevillaSpain

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