Isolation and Characterization of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Degrading Bacteria from a Municipal Sewage Treatment Plant

Na, Kyung-Su; Lee, Yong-Woon; Lee, Jin-Sook; Lee, Jae-Suk; Kubo, Motoki; Chung, Seon-Yong

Environmental Engineering Research 1998;3(2): 67-78.

Kyung-Su Na¹^†, Yong-Woon Lee¹, Jin-Sook Lee², Jae-Suk Lee², Motoki Kubo³, and Seon-Yong Chung¹

¹Department of Environmental Engineering, Chormam National University, Kwangju, 500-757 Korea
²Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Kwangju, 506-303 Korea
³Department of Bio Science & Technology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigasbi, Kusatsu-shi, Shiga-ken, 525-77 Japan

Corresponding Author: Kyung-Su Na ,

Received: September 19, 1997; Accepted: April 19, 1998.

ABSTRACT

Polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) degrading bacteria are isolated from a municipal sewage treatment plant after the culture in a minimal medium containing biphenyl and p-chlorobiphenyl as the sole carbon source, and 14 strains that can effectively degrade PCBs under the stress of unfavorable conditions are selected by using the variety of aromatic compounds and organic solvents. The selected isolates are identified as Pseudomonas (strains SY1 to SY8) and Alcaligenes sp. (strains KS1 to KS6) groups based on their morphological and physiological characteristics. In addition, the enzyme activity is investigated on the substrates of meta-ring cleavage dioxygenase in the isolates. The results show the great different characterizations between Pseudomonas and Alcaligenes sp. groups. Also, the isolated strains are tested to examine the organic solvent tolerance. The results show that some of strains can grow in xylene and the others can grow in the organic solvent of the logP value of 3.6 or over but not below the logP value of 3.6.

Keywords: Polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) | Organic solvent tolerance | logP | 2.3-dihydroxybiphenyl dioxygenase (2.3DHBD) | meta-ring cleavage dioxygenase