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Degradation of 1,4-Dioxane by Xanthobacter sp. YN2

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Abstract

1,4-Dioxane is a highly toxic and carcinogenic pollutant found worldwide in groundwater and soil environments. Several microorganisms have been isolated by their ability to grow on 1,4-dioxane; however, low 1,4-dioxane tolerance and slow degradation kinetics remain obstacles for their use in 1,4-dioxane bioremediation. We report here the isolation and characterization of a new strain, Xanthobacter sp. YN2, capable of highly efficient 1,4-dioxane degradation. High degradation efficiency and high tolerance to 1,4-dioxane make this new strain an ideal candidate for the biodegradation of 1,4-dioxane in various treatment facilities. The maximum degradation rate of 1,4-dioxane was found to be 1.10 mg-1,4-dioxane/h mg-protein. Furthermore, Xanthobacter sp. YN2 was shown to grow in the presence of higher than 3000 mg/L 1,4-dioxane with little to no degradation inhibition. In addition, Xanthobacter sp. YN2 could grow on and degrade 1,4-dioxane at pH ranges 5 to 8 and temperatures between 20 and 40 °C. Xanthobacter sp. YN2 was also found to be able to grow on a variety of other substrates including several analogs of 1,4-dioxane. Genome sequence analyses revealed the presence of two soluble di-iron monooxygenase (SDIMO) gene clusters, and regulation studies determined that all of the genes in these two clusters were upregulated in the presence of 1,4-dioxane. This study provides insights into the bacterial stress response and the highly efficient biodegradation of 1,4-dioxane as well as the identification of a novel Group-2 SDIMO.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Major Science and Technology Projects of China under 2014ZX07201-012-03. The active sludge used in the study was collected from a WWTP (Harbin, China) by permission.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Fang Ma, Yingning Wang, Jixian Yang, Delin Su & Lan Yu

  2. College of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China

    Haijuan Guo

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All the authors contribute to (1) substantial contribution to conception and design or the acquisition and analysis of data, (2) drafting or critically revising the manuscript, and (3) approval of the final submitted version. FM—also contributes to conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, and project administration. YW—also contributes to the original draft, investigation, data curation, and visualization.

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Ma, F., Wang, Y., Yang, J. et al. Degradation of 1,4-Dioxane by Xanthobacter sp. YN2. Curr Microbiol 78, 992–1005 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-021-02347-6

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