Perspectives of Bioelimination of Polynitroaromatic Compounds

npd gene functions of Rhodococcus (opacus) erythropolis HL PM-1 in the initial steps of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol degradation b bThe GenBank accession number for the sequence reported in this paper is AF435009.

“…Although several bacteria exist which mineralize these compounds (Behrend & Heesche-Wagner, 1999 ;Blasco et al, 1999 ;Ebert et al, 1999 ;Hess et al, 1990 ;Rajan et al, 1996), their general recalcitrance (Lenke et al, 2000) and toxic properties pose a threat to the environment (Aguirre et al, 1993 ;Andres et al, 1996 ;Linsinger et al, 1999). Hence, although the bacterial biodegradation of Abbreviations : H − -PA, hydride σ-complex of picric acid ; 2H − -PA, dihydride σ-complex of picric acid ; 2,4-DNP, 2,4-dinitrophenol ; H − -2,4-DNP, hydride σ-complex of 2,4-dinitrophenol ; HTES, hydride transferring enzyme system.…”

Federal Integrated Biotreatment Research Consortium (FIBRC): Flask to Field Initiative

“…New strategies including anaerobic reduction, composting, sequential anaerobic-aerobic treatment, phytoremediation, and fungal-based treatment have all gained acceptance . During the last decade microorganisms that can use a variety of nitroaromatic compounds (Lenke et al, 2000;Russ et al, 2000), nitrate ester explosives (Williams and Bruce, 2000), and nitramine explosives (Hawaii, 2000) as carbon or nitrogen sources or both have been identified.…”

“…Although TNT has only limited solubility in water, dissolved TNT is transformed under aerobic, anaerobic or alkaline conditions, by biological and abiological processes, to complex mixtures of TNT and reduced products (Honeycutt et al, 1996;Lenke et al, 2000). TNT has not been produced in the U.S. since the end of the Vietnam war, but DNT isomers are also major production intermediates for the manufacture of the toluenediamines that are precursors to toluene diisocyanate.…”

“…As a consequence, TNT is the most widespread explosive contaminant of interest to DoD. A considerable amount of work in a number of laboratories worldwide has led to the development of a wide range of strategies for the cometabolism of TNT (Ahmad and Brans-Nagel et al, 2000;Burken et al, 2000;Fritsche et al, 2000;Lenke et al, 2000). DNT is a second major environmental contaminant that resulted from the production of TNT, but many of the cometabolic strategies developed for the bioremediation of TNT have proved to be much less effective for DNT.…”

“…All currently accepted biological treatment strategies for explosives remediation rely on cometabolic processes which require the addition of primary growth substrates and complex control strategies (Jerger and Woodhull, 2000). Such systems include various composting schemes (Bruns-Nagel et al, 2000;Jerger and Woodhull, 2000), anaerobic reactors (Lenke et al, 2000), phytoremediation (Burken et al, 2000), and fungal treatments (Fritsche et al, 2000).…”