Open AccessMineralization of the herbicide 2,3,6‐trichlorobenzoic acid by a co‐culture of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria
Author(s) -
Gerritse Jan,
Gottschal Jan C.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1992.tb05765.x
Subject(s) - anaerobic exercise , aeration , bacteria , enrichment culture , mineralization (soil science) , chemistry , oxygen , anaerobic bacteria , biodegradation , chlorine , aerobic bacteria , population , environmental chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , nuclear chemistry , biology , organic chemistry , nitrogen , physiology , genetics , demography , sociology
Bacteria from an anaerobic enrichment reductively removed chlorine from the ortho ‐ position of 2,3,6‐trichlorobenzoic acid (2,3,6‐TBA) producing 2,5‐dichlorobenzoate (2,5‐DBA). The strictly aerobic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa JB2 subsequently used 2,5‐DBA as a growth substrate in the presence of oxygen. The anaerobic dechlorinating microbial population was grown with P. aeruginosa JB2 in continuous culture. Inside the liquid culture, a nylon netting, on a stainless‐steel support, contained vermiculite particles to provide a strictly anaerobic environment within the aerated culture. Complete mineralization of 2,3,6‐TBA depended on the extent of oxygen input into the reactor. Under strictly anaerobic conditions 2,5‐DBA and Cl − were produced stoichiometrically through the reductive dechlorination of 2,3,6‐TBA. This process of reductive dechlorination was not inhibited by (moderate) aeration resulting in an O 2 ‐concentration of 0.3–0.5 μM in the culture liquid.