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Biodegradation of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether by Enriched Bacterial Culture

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Abstract

Degradation of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as a sole carbon and energy source was investigated utilizing an enriched bacterial consortium derived from an old environmental MTBE spill. This enriched culture grew on MTBE with concentration up to 500 mg/l, reducing the MTBE in medium to undetectable concentrations in 23 days. Traces of tert-butyl alcohol were detected during MTBE degradation. The degradation was not affected by additional cobalt ions, whereas low concentration of glucose enhanced the rate of degradation. The bacterial community consisted of numerous bacterial genera, the majority being members of the phylum Acidobacteria and genus Terrimonas. The alkane 1-monooxygenase (alk) gene was detected in this consortium. Our findings suggest that environmental degradation of MTBE proceeds along the previously proposed pathway.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Simon Rayner for critical reading of the manuscript, and Dr. Martin M. Larsen for analyzing the medium for cobalt. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30570038), Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KSCX2-YW-G-009), and by the European Commission (Project BIOTOOL, Grant No. GOCE-003998).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Haizhou Liu, Jianping Yan, Qin Wang, Gang Zou & Zhiming Yuan

  2. National Environmental Research Institute, University of Aarhus, Roskilde, Denmark

    Ulrich Gosewinkel Karlson

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  1. Haizhou Liu
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  2. Jianping Yan
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  3. Qin Wang
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  4. Ulrich Gosewinkel Karlson
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  5. Gang Zou
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  6. Zhiming Yuan
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Correspondence to Zhiming Yuan.

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Liu, H., Yan, J., Wang, Q. et al. Biodegradation of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether by Enriched Bacterial Culture. Curr Microbiol 59, 30–34 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-009-9391-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-009-9391-1

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