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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2000, p. 3446-3453, Vol. 66, No. 8
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
and Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment, Cook
College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8525
Received 20 March 2000/Accepted 31 May 2000
Denitrifying bacteria capable of degrading halobenzoates were
isolated from various geographical and ecological sites. The strains
were isolated after initial enrichment on one of the monofluoro-, monochloro-, or monobromo-benzoate isomers with nitrate as an electron
acceptor, yielding a total of 33 strains isolated from the different
halobenzoate-utilizing enrichment cultures. Each isolate could grow on
the selected halobenzoate with nitrate as the terminal electron
acceptor. The isolates obtained on 2-fluorobenzoate could use
2-fluorobenzoate under both aerobic and denitrifying conditions, but
did not degrade other halobenzoates. In contrast, the 4-fluorobenzoate
isolates degraded 4-fluorobenzoate under denitrifying conditions only,
but utilized 2-fluorobenzoate under both aerobic and denitrifying
conditions. The strains isolated on either 3-chlorobenzoate or
3-bromobenzoate could use 3-chlorobenzoate, 3-bromobenzoate, and 2- and
4-fluorobenzoates under denitrifying conditions. The isolates were
identified and classified on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence
analysis and their cellular fatty acid profiles. They were placed in
nine genera belonging to either the
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Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Isolation and Characterization of Diverse
Halobenzoate-Degrading Denitrifying Bacteria from Soils and
Sediments

-,
-, or
-branch of the
Proteobacteria, namely, Acidovorax, Azoarcus, Bradyrhizobium,
Ochrobactrum, Paracoccus,
Pseudomonas, Mesorhizobium,
Ensifer, and Thauera. These results indicate
that the ability to utilize different halobenzoates under denitrifying conditions is ubiquitously distributed in the
Proteobacteria and that these bacteria are widely
distributed in soils and sediments.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Biochemistry and Microbiology, Cook College, Lipman Hall, Rutgers
University, 76 Lipman Dr., New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8525. Phone: (732)
932-9763, ext. 326. Fax: (732) 932-8965. E-mail:
haggblom{at}aesop.rutgers.edu.
Present address: Department of Geoscience, Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544.
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