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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2004, p. 5283-5289, Vol. 70, No. 9
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.9.5283-5289.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Degradation of Estrogens by Rhodococcus zopfii and Rhodococcus equi Isolates from Activated Sludge in Wastewater Treatment Plants

Takeshi Yoshimoto,^1* Fumiko Nagai,¹ Junji Fujimoto,¹ Koichi Watanabe,¹ Harumi Mizukoshi,¹ Takashi Makino,¹ Kazumasa Kimura,¹ Hideyuki Saino,² Haruji Sawada,¹ and Hiroshi Omura¹

Yakult Central Institute for Microbiological Research, Kunitachi, Tokyo,¹ National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan²

Received 14 November 2003/ Accepted 11 May 2004

We have isolated four strains of Rhodococcus which specifically degrade estrogens by using enrichment culture of activated sludge from wastewater treatment plants. Strain Y 50158, identified as Rhodococcus zopfii, completely and rapidly degraded 100 mg of 17ß-estradiol, estrone, estriol, and ethinyl estradiol/liter, as demonstrated by thin-layer chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses. Strains Y 50155, Y 50156, and Y 50157, identified as Rhodococcus equi, showed degradation activities comparable with that of Y 50158. Using the random amplified polymorphism DNA fingerprinting test, these three strains were confirmed to have been derived from different sources. R. zopfii Y 50158, which showed the highest activity among these four strains, revealed that the strain selectively degraded 17ß-estradiol during jar fermentation, even when glucose was used as a readily utilizable carbon source in the culture medium. Measurement of estrogenic activities with human breast cancer-derived MVLN cells showed that these four strains each degraded 100 mg of 17ß-estradiol/liter to 1/100 of the specific activity level after 24 h. It is thus suggested that these strains degrade 17ß-estradiol into substances without estrogenic activity.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Yakult Central Institute for Microbiological Research, 1796 Yaho, Kunitachi, Tokyo 186-8650, Japan. Phone: 81-42-577-8960. Fax: 81-42-577-3020. E-mail: takeshi-yoshimoto{at}yakult.co.jp.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2004, p. 5283-5289, Vol. 70, No. 9
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.9.5283-5289.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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