This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Schleheck, D.
Right arrow Articles by Cook, A. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Schleheck, D.
Right arrow Articles by Cook, A. M.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Schleheck, D.
Right arrow Articles by Cook, A. M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2000, p. 1911-1916, Vol. 66, No. 5
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

An alpha -Proteobacterium Converts Linear Alkylbenzenesulfonate Surfactants into Sulfophenylcarboxylates and Linear Alkyldiphenyletherdisulfonate Surfactants into Sulfodiphenylethercarboxylates

David Schleheck,1 Wenbo Dong,1,dagger Karin Denger,1 Elmar Heinzle,2 and Alasdair M. Cook1,*

Department of Biology, The University, D-78457 Konstanz,1 and Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Saarland University, D-66041 Saarbrücken,2 Germany

Received 16 November 1999/Accepted 22 February 2000

The surfactant linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS; 0.5 mM) or linear monoalkyldiphenyletherdisulfonate (LADPEDS; 0.5 mM) in salts medium was easily degraded in laboratory trickling filters, whereas carbon-limited, aerobic enrichment cultures in suspended culture with the same inocula did not grow. We took portions of the trickling filters which degraded LADPEDS, shook the organisms from the solid support (polyester), and found that growth in suspended culture in LADPEDS-salts medium occurred only in the presence of some solid support (polyester fleece or glass wool), though little biomass was immobilized on the support. The end products in suspended culture were identical with those from the trickling filters. There was low plating efficiency of LADPEDS-grown cultures on complex medium, and no picked colony or mixture of colonies grew in LADPEDS-salts-glass wool medium. However, selective plates containing LADPEDS-salts medium solidified with agarose yielded LADPEDS-dependent, pinpoint colonies which could be picked singly and subcultured in selective liquid medium. Isolate DS-1 was a bacterium which showed 93% sequence homology (16S ribosomal DNA) to its nearest phylogenetic neighbor, an alpha -proteobacterium. Strain DS-1 grew heterotrophically in LADPEDS-salts-glass wool medium and converted the set of aryl-substituted alkanes to the corresponding aryl-substituted carboxylic acids of shorter chain length. Similarly, strain DS-1 grew heterotrophically with commercial LAS, converting it to a set of sulfophenylcarboxylates. Growth with a single isomer of LAS [3-(4-sulfophenyl)dodecane] was concomitant with excretion of 4-(4-sulfophenyl)hexanoate, which was identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry. The growth yield (6.4 g of protein/mol of C) indicated mass balance, which, with the specific growth rate (0.05 h-1), indicated a specific utilization rate of LAS of 2.2 mkat/kg of protein.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätstr. 10, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany. Phone: 0049 7531 88 42 47. Fax: 0049 7531 88 29 66. E-mail: Alasdair.Cook{at}uni-konstanz.de.

dagger Present address: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2000, p. 1911-1916, Vol. 66, No. 5
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Schleheck, D., Knepper, T. P., Eichhorn, P., Cook, A. M. (2007). Parvibaculum lavamentivorans DS-1T Degrades Centrally Substituted Congeners of Commercial Linear Alkylbenzenesulfonate to Sulfophenyl Carboxylates and Sulfophenyl Dicarboxylates. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73: 4725-4732 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Rein, U., Gueta, R., Denger, K., Ruff, J., Hollemeyer, K., Cook, A. M. (2005). Dissimilation of cysteate via 3-sulfolactate sulfo-lyase and a sulfate exporter in Paracoccus pantotrophus NKNCYSA. Microbiology 151: 737-747 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Schleheck, D., Tindall, B. J., Rossello-Mora, R., Cook, A. M. (2004). Parvibaculum lavamentivorans gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel heterotroph that initiates catabolism of linear alkylbenzenesulfonate. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 54: 1489-1497 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Schleheck, D., Knepper, T. P., Fischer, K., Cook, A. M. (2004). Mineralization of Individual Congeners of Linear Alkylbenzenesulfonate by Defined Pairs of Heterotrophic Bacteria. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70: 4053-4063 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Schleheck, D., Lechner, M., Schonenberger, R., Suter, M. J.-F., Cook, A. M. (2003). Desulfonation and Degradation of the Disulfodiphenylethercarboxylates from Linear Alkyldiphenyletherdisulfonate Surfactants. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69: 938-944 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Schulz, S., Dong, W., Groth, U., Cook, A. M. (2000). Enantiomeric Degradation of 2-(4-Sulfophenyl)Butyrate via 4-Sulfocatechol in Delftia acidovorans SPB1. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 66: 1905-1910 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»