Growth of the black yeast Exophiala jeanselmei on styrene and styrene-related compounds

Abstract

The black yeast Exophiala jeanselmei can grow on styrene as the sole source of carbon and energy in concentrations up to 0.36 raM. No growth is observed at higher styrene concentrations. Styrene oxidation is induced by styrene or styrene-related compounds, whereas glucose represses this styrene oxidation. E. jeanselmei shows a broad substrate specificity: various aromatic compounds are used as the sole source of carbon and energy. Styrene-grown cells can oxidize styrene, styrene oxide, phenylacetaldehyde, phenylacetic acid and 2-phenylethanol at a rate of 1.3 to 3.2 Ixg O a ' m i n -l " m g -1 protein. A pathway for the degradation of styrene in E. jeanselmei is suggested.

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“…This yeast is able to oxidize these substrates after growth on styrene, suggesting that it also metabolizes styrene through styrene oxide and phenylacetic acid (Cox et al 1993a). Similar results were obtained with a Rhodococcus sp.…”

Kinetics of styrene biodegradation in synthetic wastewaters using an industrial activated sludge

“…This implies that above a certain concentration styrene acts as an inhibitor of bacterial activity. The fact that styrene, above a certain concentration, can be toxic to yeasts and bacteria has been previously reported [34,35].…”

Modeling of a vapor-phase fungi bioreactor for the abatement of hexane: Fluid dynamics and kinetic aspects

“…To overcome these problems, biofilters with fungi on inert packing material have been developed (Cox et al, 1993;Pagella et al, 2000Pagella et al, , 2001van Groenestijn et al, 2001;Woertz et al, 2001). In fact, fungi, in particular filamentous fungi, are tolerant to low water activity and acid conditions, contain many species capable of hydrocarbon degradation (hexane, a linear carbon chain with less than ten atoms, is very difficult to be metabolized by most of the bacteria) (April et al, 1992;Levi et al, 1979) and, moreover, they develop aerial structures, hyphae, which provide a large surface area so that a direct mass transfer of the pollutant from the gas phase into the biological one is allowed (van Groenestijn et al, 2001).…”