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Degradation of recalcitrant aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons by a dioxin-degrader Rhodococcus sp. strain p52

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Abstract

This study investigates the ability of Rhodococcus sp. strain p52, a dioxin degrader, to biodegrade petroleum hydrocarbons. Strain p52 can use linear alkanes (tetradecane, tetracosane, and dotriacontane), branched alkane (pristane), and aromatic hydrocarbons (naphthalene and phenanthrene) as sole carbon and energy sources. Specifically, the strain removes 85.7 % of tetradecane within 48 h at a degradation rate of 3.8 mg h−1 g−1 dry cells, and 79.4 % of tetracosane, 66.4 % of dotriacontane, and 63.9 % of pristane within 9–11 days at degradation rates of 20.5, 14.7, and 20.3 mg day−1 g−1 dry cells, respectively. Moreover, strain p52 consumes 100 % naphthalene and 55.3 % phenanthrene within 9–11 days at respective degradation rates of 16 and 12.9 mg day−1 g−1 dry cells. Metabolites of the petroleum hydrocarbons by strain p52 were analyzed. Genes encoding alkane-hydroxylating enzymes, including cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzyme (CYP185) and two alkane-1-monooxygenases, were amplified by polymerase chain reaction. The transcriptional activities of these genes in the presence of petroleum hydrocarbons were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The results revealed potential of strain p52 to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Jinan Science and Technology Development Foundation for Young Scientist (no. 20080408), Shandong Province Young and Middle-Aged Scientists Research Awards Fund (no. BS2009SW020), and Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 21377069).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, 27 ShandaNanlu, Jinan, 250100, China

    Hai-Yan Yang, Bin Chen & Li Li

  2. Jinan Water and Waste Water Monitoring Center, Jinan, China

    Rui-Bao Jia

Authors
  1. Hai-Yan Yang
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  2. Rui-Bao Jia
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  3. Bin Chen
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  4. Li Li
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Correspondence to Li Li.

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Responsible editor: Robert Duran

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Fig5

Fig. SM-1 Proposed metabolic pathway responsible for the identified metabolites of tetradecane by Rhodococcus sp. strain p52. Compounds pointed by solid arrows represent the detected metabolites (in box) in this study, while broken arrows point to the undetected metabolites which were speculated according to the referenced pathway (GIF 18 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 218 kb)

Fig6

Fig. SM-2 Proposed metabolic pathway responsible for the identified metabolites of pristane by Rhodococcus sp. strain p52. Compounds pointed by solid arrows represent the detected metabolites in this study, while broken arrows point to the undetected metabolites which were speculated according to the referenced pathway (GIF 6 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 97 kb)

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Yang, HY., Jia, RB., Chen, B. et al. Degradation of recalcitrant aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons by a dioxin-degrader Rhodococcus sp. strain p52. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 11086–11093 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3027-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3027-0

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