Microbe-based decontamination of phenol-polluted environments has significant advantages over physical and chemical approaches by being relatively cheaper and ensuring complete phenol degradation. There is a need to search for commercially prospective bacterial strains that are resistant to phenol and other co-pollutants, e.g. oil hydrocarbons, in contaminated environments, and able to carry out efficient phenol biodegradation at a variable range of concentrations. This research characterizes the phenol-biodegrading ability of a new actinobacteria strain isolated from a lubricant-contaminated soil environment. Phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses showed that the novel strain UCM Ac-603 belonged to the species Rhodococcus aetherivorans, and phenol degrading ability was quantitatively characterized for the first time. R. aetherivorans UCM Ac-603 tolerated and assimilated phenol (100% of supplied concentration) and various hydrocarbons (56.2–94.4%) as sole carbon sources. Additional nutrient supplementation was not required for degradation and this organism could grow at a phenol concentration of 500 mg L−1 without inhibition. Complete phenol assimilation occurred after 4 days at an initial concentration of 1750 mg L−1 for freely-suspended cells and at 2000 mg L−1 for vermiculite-immobilized cells: 99.9% assimilation of phenol was possible from a total concentration of 3000 mg L−1 supplied at daily fractional phenol additions of 750 mg L−1 over 4 days. In terms of phenol degradation rates, R. aetherivorans UCM Ac-602 showed efficient phenol degradation over a wide range of initial concentrations with the rates (e.g. 35.7 mg L−1 h−1 at 500 mg L−1 phenol, and 18.2 mg L−1 h−1 at 1750 mg L−1 phenol) significantly exceeding (1.2–5 times) reported data for almost all other phenol-assimilating bacteria. Such efficient phenol degradation ability compared to currently known strains and other beneficial characteristics of R. aetherivorans UCM Ac-602 suggest it is a promising candidate for bioremediation of phenol-contaminated environments.

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Aim. To study lectin properties of non-pathogenic corynebacteria cells and preparations of their surface biopolymers (SBP), extracted by SDS. Methods. SBP were extracted from intact cells by 0.15 M solution of NaCl contains 1 % SDS. Protein content was determined using Lowry method, carbohydrates – with anthrone method. Electrophoresis was performed in SDS-PAGE according to Lemmli. Hemagglutinating activity (HAA) was studied using rabbit erythrocytes. The lectin carbohydrate specificity was determined by reaction of inhibition of hemagglutination. Results. Electrophoretic set of SBP preparations contained the proteins and carbohydrates biopolymers with molecular mass of 10.0–120.0 kDa which did not possess HAA. After extraction of SBP the corynebacteria cells remained viable and have HAA higher than intact cells (64–2048 units). The hemagglutinins of the majority of corynebacteria strains after treatment of cells with SDS exhibited the highest affinity to the bovine submandibular gland mucin and N-acetylneuraminic acid. Conclusions. The examined non-pathogenic strains of corynebacteria were found to contain the lectins, associated with internal layers of a cell wall, which showed a predominant specificity to sialic acids