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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2005, p. 3815-3825, Vol. 71, No. 7
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.71.7.3815-3825.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Dynamics of an Oligotrophic Bacterial Aquifer Community during Contact with a Groundwater Plume Contaminated with Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylenes: an In Situ Mesocosm Study
Barbara Hendrickx,1,2
Winnie Dejonghe,1
Wesley Boënne,1
Maria Brennerova,3
Miroslav Cernik,4
Tomas Lederer,4
Margarete Bucheli-Witschel,5
Leen Bastiaens,1
Willy Verstraete,2
Eva M. Top,2,
Ludo Diels,1 and
Dirk Springael1,6*
Environmental and Process Technology, Flemish Institute for Technological Research, 2400 Mol, Belgium,1 Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium,2 Department of Cell and Molecular Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, 142 00 Prague 4, Czech Republic,3 Aquatest, 152 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic,4 Department of Microbiology, Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland,5 Laboratory of Soil and Water Management, Catholic University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium6
Received 14 July 2004/ Accepted 1 February 2005
An in situ mesocosm system was designed to monitor the in situ dynamics of the microbial community in polluted aquifers. The mesocosm system consists of a permeable membrane pocket filled with aquifer material and placed within a polypropylene holder, which is inserted below groundwater level in a monitoring well. After a specific time period, the microcosm is recovered from the well and its bacterial community is analyzed. Using this system, we examined the effect of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) contamination on the response of an aquifer bacterial community by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes and PCR detection of BTEX degradation genes. Mesocosms were filled with nonsterile or sterile aquifer material derived from an uncontaminated area and positioned in a well located in either the uncontaminated area or a nearby contaminated area. In the contaminated area, the bacterial community in the microcosms rapidly evolved into a stable community identical to that in the adjacent aquifer but different from that in the uncontaminated area. At the contaminated location, bacteria with tmoA- and xylM/xylE1-like BTEX catabolic genotypes colonized the aquifer, while at the uncontaminated location only tmoA-like genotypes were detected. The communities in the mesocosms and in the aquifer adjacent to the wells in the contaminated area consisted mainly of Proteobacteria. At the uncontaminated location, Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were found. Our results indicate that communities with long-term stability in their structures follow the contamination plume and rapidly colonize downstream areas upon contamination.
* Corresponding author. Present address: Laboratory for Soil and Water Management, Catholic University of Leuven (KULeuven), Kasteelpark Arenberg 20, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium. Phone: 32-(0)16-321604. Fax: 32-(0)16-321997. E-mail: Dirk.Springael{at}agr.kuleuven.ac.be.
Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.
Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844-3051.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2005, p. 3815-3825, Vol. 71, No. 7
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.71.7.3815-3825.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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