Characterization of a phenol-degrading bacterium isolated from an industrial effluent and its potential application for bioremediation

Abstract

The use of native microorganisms is a useful strategy for phenol bioremediation. In the present work, a bacterial strain, named RTE1.4, was isolated from effluents of a chemical industry. The strain was able to grow at high concentrations of phenol and its derivatives, such as guaiacol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and pentachlorophenol, as well as in a medium containing industrial effluents. This bacterium was identified as Acinetobacter sp. using morphological, physiological, biochemical and 16S rRNA gene analysis. Acinetobacter sp. RTE1.4 degraded phenol (200 to 600 mg/L) at wide pH range and temperature (5-9 and 25-37 degrees C, respectively) demonstrating high adaptation ability to different conditions. The strain would metabolize phenol by the ortho-pathway since catechol 1,2-dioxygenase activity was detected. When bacteria were grown in medium containing phenol, an altered whole-cell protein pattern was observed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), with the lack of some low-molecular mass polypeptides and an increase in the relative abundance of high-molecular mass proteins after treatment. Considering that the use of native strains in bioremediation studies shows several ecological advantages and that the studied bacterium showed high tolerance and biodegradation capabilities, Acinetobacter sp. RTE1.4 could be an appropriate microorganism for improving bioremediation and biotreatment of areas polluted with phenol and/or some of its derivatives. Moreover, the establishment of the optimal growth conditions (pH, temperature, concentration of the pollutant) would provide baseline data for bulk production of the strain and its use in bioremediation processes.

Characteristics of phenol degradation in saline conditions of a halophilic strain JS3 isolated from industrial activated sludge

“…The application of fungi to degrade aromatic pollutants in wastewater has been reported (Santos and Linard, 2004;D'Annibale et al, 2004;Margesin et al, 2005), most of which are effective even in high concentration of phenol. Majority of previous studies focus on the phenol biological treatment by non-halophilic bacteria or fungi which are hard to metabolize in high salt conditions (Jiang et al, 2005;Wei et al, 2008;Paisio et al, 2013;Kumar et al, 2013). More attention should be paid to salt-tolerant phenol-degrading microorganisms because large quantities of hypersaline phenol-containing effluents were drained into surface water.…”

Application of two bacterial strains for wastewater bioremediation and assessment of phenolics biodegradation

“…CS1 to guaiacol, 4-CP, 2,4-DCP and PCP was previously determined evaluating their growth in agar plates. [13,14] Acinetobacter sp. RTE1.4 was able to grow in the presence of guaiacol and 4-CP while Rhodococcus sp.…”

“…CS1, previously isolated from an effluent derived from a chemical industry and from tannery sediments, respectively, were used. [13,14] Bacteria were routinely grown on TY agar medium [(g/L): 5 tryptone; 3 yeast extract; 0.65 CaCl 2 ; 13 agar] and kept at 4 • C. For the different experiments described below, inoculums were prepared by growing the strains in TY liquid medium.…”

“…They showed high ability to degrade phenol in synthetic media. [13,14] Despite the ability of some bacterial strains to degrade different compounds in synthetic media, frequently they are not able to remove toxic compounds from effluents due to an inadequate pH or possible inhibitory effect of some wastewater components on microorganism's growth and/or catabolic activity. [10] In this sense, it has been described that phenolic compounds may often cause the breakdown of wastewater treatments by inhibition of microbial growth due to their toxicity.…”

Identification and Characterization of Potential Phenol Degrading Bacterial strains Isolated from Municipal Sewage, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh

“…Effluents of Petrochemical, coke oven, dye industries, plastic and fiberglass manufacturing unit, pulp and paper production, herbicide manufacturing and oil refineries have been reported for higher amount of phenolic compounds (Paisio et al, 2013, Mohite et al, 2010, El-Ashtoukhy et al, 2013, Veeresh et al, 2005, Jadhav and Vanjara, 2004. These phenolic compounds enter into aquatic food chain when untreated or by improper treated industrial wastewater drained into natural water reservoirs e.g.…”