Assessment of Biodegradation Efficiency of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) in Soil Using Three Individual Bacterial Strains and Their Mixed Culture

Abstract

Biodegradation is one of the most effective and profitable methods for the elimination of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) from the environment. In this study, aerobic degradation of the mentioned pollutants by bacterial strains Mycolicibacterium frederiksbergense IN53, Rhodococcus erythropolis IN129, and Rhodococcus sp. IN306 and mixed culture M1 developed based on those strains at 1:1:1 ratio was analyzed. The effectiveness of individual strains and of the mixed culture was assessed based on carried out respirometric tests and chromatographic analyses. The Rhodococcus sp. IN306 turned out most effective in terms of 18 PCB congeners biodegradation (54.4%). The biodegradation index was decreasing with an increasing number of chlorine atoms in a molecule. Instead, the Mycolicobacterium frederiksbergense IN53 was the best TPH degrader (37.2%). In a sterile soil, contaminated with PCBs and TPH, the highest biodegradation effectiveness was obtained using inoculation with mixed culture M1, which allowed to reduce both the PCBs (51.8%) and TPH (34.6%) content. The PCBs and TPH biodegradation capacity of the defined mixed culture M1 was verified ex-situ with prism method in a non-sterile soil polluted with aged petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and spent transformer oil (PCBs). After inoculation with mixed culture M1, the PCBs were reduced during 6 months by 84.5% and TPH by 70.8% as well as soil toxicity was decreased.

Effects of Lead on Petrol Degradation Efficiency of Bacteria Isolated from Soils in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

“…Similar strains of A. denitrificans, such as A. denitrificans strain SP1, A. denitrificans ASU-035, A. xylosoxidans subspecies denitrificans strain EST4002 and A. denitrificans strain TB, have recently been identified to be able to degrade di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, pyrene, 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and reduce nitric oxide, respectively [29][30][31][32]. Although the genera Mycolicibacterium, such as M. mucogenicum, M. frederiksbergense IN53, M. vanbaalenii, have been reported to be able to degrade methy t-butyl ether, polychlorinated biphenyls and petroleum hydrocarbons [33][34][35], the strain M. phocaicum N4, which shows 99.71% sequence homology to the isolated B-10 strain in this study via 16S rRNA sequencing technique, has recently been isolated from human bronchial aspirate from patients showing tuberculosis symptoms [36].…”

Promoting effect of the recombinant resuscitation promoting factors‐2 of Rhodococcus erythropolis on petroleum degradation and cultivable bacterial diversities of the oil‐contaminated soils

“…Biodegradation has been becoming the most promising method for remediation of the petroleum-contaminated soils (Steliga et al 2020). More than 100 bacterial genera have been reported to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons in the nature environments, including Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus, Bacillus, Streptomyces, Alcaligenes (Varjani 2017).…”

New Frontiers of Anaerobic Hydrocarbon Biodegradation in the Multi-Omics Era

“…Aerobic biodegradation of aliphatic and aromatic compounds (mono- and polycyclic) has been prominent and documented in several studies ( Brzeszcz and Kaszycki, 2018 ; Kuang et al, 2018 ; Révész et al, 2018 ; Xu et al, 2018 ; Mejeha et al, 2019 ; Steliga et al, 2020 ). The microorganisms use molecular oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor under aerobic conditions.…”