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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2007, p. 1474-1480, Vol. 73, No. 5
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02236-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Strong Impact on the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH)-Degrading Community of a PAH-Polluted Soil but Marginal Effect on PAH Degradation when Priming with Bioremediated Soil Dominated by Mycobacteria{triangledown}

Anders R. Johnsen,1* Stine Schmidt,1,2 Trine K. Hybholt,1,2 Sidsel Henriksen,1 Carsten S. Jacobsen,1 and Ole Andersen2

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Department of Geochemistry, Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark,1 Department of Life Sciences and Chemistry, Roskilde University, Postboks 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark2

Received 22 September 2006/ Accepted 21 December 2006

Bioaugmentation of soil polluted with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is often disappointing because of the low survival rate and low activity of the introduced degrader bacteria. We therefore investigated the possibility of priming PAH degradation in soil by adding 2% of bioremediated soil with a high capacity for PAH degradation. The culturable PAH-degrading community of the bioremediated primer soil was dominated by Mycobacterium spp. A microcosm containing pristine soil artificially polluted with PAHs and primed with bioremediated soil showed a fast, 100- to 1,000-fold increase in numbers of culturable phenanthrene-, pyrene-, and fluoranthene degraders and a 160-fold increase in copy numbers of the mycobacterial PAH dioxygenase gene pdo1. A nonpolluted microcosm primed with bioremediated soil showed a high rate of survival of the introduced degrader community during the 112 days of incubation. A nonprimed control microcosm containing pristine soil artificially polluted with PAHs showed only small increases in the numbers of culturable PAH degraders and no pdo1 genes. Initial PAH degradation rates were highest in the primed microcosm, but later, the degradation rates were comparable in primed and nonprimed soil. Thus, the proliferation and persistence of the introduced, soil-adapted degraders had only a marginal effect on PAH degradation. Given the small effect of priming with bioremediated soil and the likely presence of PAH degraders in almost all PAH-contaminated soils, it seems questionable to prime PAH-contaminated soil with bioremediated soil as a means of large-scale soil bioremediation.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Department of Geochemistry, Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Phone: 45 3814 2328. E-mail: arj{at}geus.dk.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 5 January 2007.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2007, p. 1474-1480, Vol. 73, No. 5
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02236-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Hilyard, E. J., Jones-Meehan, J. M., Spargo, B. J., Hill, R. T. (2008). Enrichment, Isolation, and Phylogenetic Identification of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria from Elizabeth River Sediments. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74: 1176-1182 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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