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Appl Environ Microbiol, July 1998, p. 2432-2438, Vol. 64, No. 7
Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the
Environment and Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers, the
State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901
Received 4 December 1997/Accepted 17 April 1998
Phenol is a man-made as well as a naturally occurring aromatic
compound and an important intermediate in the biodegradation of natural
and industrial aromatic compounds. Whereas many microorganisms that are
capable of aerobic phenol degradation have been isolated, only a few
phenol-degrading anaerobic organisms have been described to date. In
this study, three novel nitrate-reducing microorganisms that are
capable of using phenol as a sole source of carbon were isolated and
characterized. Phenol-degrading denitrifying pure cultures were
obtained by enrichment culture from anaerobic sediments obtained from
three different geographic locations, the East River in New York, N.Y.,
a Florida orange grove, and a rain forest in Costa Rica. The three
strains were shown to be different from each other based on physiologic
and metabolic properties. Even though analysis of membrane fatty acids
did not result in identification of the organisms, the fatty acid
profiles were found to be similar to those of Azoarcus
species. Sequence analysis of 16S ribosomal DNA also indicated that the
phenol-degrading isolates were closely related to members of the genus
Azoarcus. The results of this study add three new members
to the genus Azoarcus, which previously comprised only
nitrogen-fixing species associated with plant roots and denitrifying
toluene degraders.
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Isolation and Characterization of Phenol-Degrading
Denitrifying Bacteria
and
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Biotechnology
Center for Agriculture and the Environment, Foran Hall, 59 Dudley Road, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520. Phone: (732) 932-8165, ext. 312. Fax: (732) 932-0312. E-mail: Lyoung{at}aesop.rutgers.edu.
Present address: Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal
Research, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208.
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