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Isolation of an anaerobic bacterium which reductively dechlorinates tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene

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Abstract

Strain TEA, a strictly anaerobic, motile rod with one to four lateral flagella and a crystalline surface layer was isolated from a mixed culture that completely reduces chlorinated ethenes to ethene. The organism coupled reductive dehalogenation of tetrachloroethene or trichloroethene to cis-1,2-dichloroethene to growth, using molecular hydrogen as the electron donor. It was unable to grow fermentatively or in the presence of tri- or tetrachloroethene with glucose, pyruvate, lactate, acetate or formate. The 16S rDNA sequence of strain TEA was 99.7% identical to that of Dehalobacter restrictus. The two organisms thus are representatives of the same species or the same genus within the Bacillus/Clostridium subphylum of the gram-positive bacteria.

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Wild, A., Hermann, R. & Leisinger, T. Isolation of an anaerobic bacterium which reductively dechlorinates tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene. Biodegradation 7, 507–511 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00115297

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