Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) metabolism in psychrotolerant and mesophilic bacteria : from substrate uptake to catalysis ...

• Main Author: Master, Emma R.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0103836; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0103836

Bioremediation of soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is potentially a cost-effective cleanup strategy as it can be performed on-site. My general 5 aims were to isolate PCB-degrading bacteria from PCB-contaminated Arctic soil and to determine if these bacteria are adapted for PCB degradation at low temperature. An Arctic soil bacterium and a mesophilic bacterium were compared on the basis of PCB degradation by whole cells, activities of purified biphenyl dioxygenases, regulation of genes encoding these enzymes and the mechanism of biphenyl uptake by these bacteria. 10 In addition to these studies, I demonstrated bioremediation of weathered PCBcontaminated Arctic soil in a microcosm. PCB-degrading bacteria were isolated at 7°C from PCB-contaminated Arctic soil. 16S rDNA sequences indicate that these isolates are members of the genus Pseudomonas. At 7°C, PCB congeners that were transformed by the Arctic bacteria and by the 15 mesophilic PCB-degrader, Burkholderia sp. strain LB400, were ...