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Methyl tert-butyl ether biodegradation by microbial consortia obtained from soil samples of gasoline-polluted sites in Mexico

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Abstract

Microbial consortia obtained from soil samples of gasoline-polluted sites were individually enriched with pentane, hexane, isooctane and toluene. Cometabolism with methyl tert-butyl ether, (MTBE), gave maximum degradation rates of 49, 12, 32 and 0 mg gprotein −1 h−1, respectively. MTBE was fully degraded even when pentane was completely depleted with a cometabolic coefficient of 1 mgMTBE mgpentane −1. The analysis of 16S rDNA from isolated microorganisms in the pentane-adapted consortia showed that microorganisms could be assigned to Pseudomonas . This is the first work reporting the cometabolic mineralization of MTBE by consortium of this genus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Medio Ambiente y Seguridad and Programa de Biotecnología del Petróleo, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 152, C.P. 07730, México D.F

    Marcia Morales, Uriel González & Elías Razo-Flores

  2. Programa de Medio Ambiente y Seguridad, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 152, C.P. 07730, México D.F

    Elia Velázquez

  3. Programa de Biotecnología del Petróleo, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 152, C.P. 07730, México D.F

    Janet Jan

  4. Departamento de Ingeniería de Procesos, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Apdo. Postal 55-534, C.P. 09340, México D.F

    Sergio Revah

Authors
  1. Marcia Morales
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  2. Elia Velázquez
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  3. Janet Jan
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  4. Sergio Revah
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  5. Uriel González
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  6. Elías Razo-Flores
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Morales, M., Velázquez, E., Jan, J. et al. Methyl tert-butyl ether biodegradation by microbial consortia obtained from soil samples of gasoline-polluted sites in Mexico. Biotechnology Letters 26, 269–275 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BILE.0000015424.04776.55

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BILE.0000015424.04776.55

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