Assessment of PCB contamination, the potential for in situ microbial dechlorination and natural attenuation in an urban watershed at the East Coast of the United States

Sediment contamination is a major environmental issue in many urban watersheds and coastal areas due to the potential toxic effects of contaminants on biota and human health. Characterizing and delineating areas of sediment contamination and toxicity are important goals of coastal resource management in terms of ecological and economical perspectives. Core and surficial sediment samples were collected from an industrialized urban watershed at the East Coast of the United Stated and analyzed to evaluate the PCB contamination profile and toxicity resulting from dioxin-like PCBs as well as reductive dechlorination potential of indigenous PCB halorespiring bacteria through dechlorination activity assays. To support the experimental results an anaerobic dechlorination model was applied to identify microbial dechlorination pathways. The total PCB concentration in core samples ranged from 3.9 to 225.6 ng/g·dry weight (dw) decreasing with depth compared to 353.2 to 1213.7 ng/g·dw in surficial samples. The results of this study indicated an increase in PCB contamination over the last century as the industrial activity intensified. The toxicity resulting from dioxin-like PCBs was reduced up to 94% in core samples via 21 pathways resulting from the dechlorination model. Dechlorination rates in surficial sediment were between 1.8 and 13.2 · 10^-3 mol% PCB116/day, while lower rates occurred in the core sediment samples. Dechlorination was achieved mainly through meta followed by para dechlorination. However, the rarer ortho dechlorination was also observed. Detection of indigenous PCB dechlorinating bacteria in the sediments and reduction of toxicity indicated potential for natural attenuation when point and nonpoint source PCBs in the urban watershed are controlled and PCB loading reduced.

Application of Rhamnolipid Biosurfactant for Removing Polychlorinated Biphenyls from Contaminated Soil

Rhamnolipid (RL) was used to study the removing of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from contaminated soils. The results showed that RL obviously enhanced desorption of PCBs from soils and RL was more effective than POE(6).Pseudomonas strainLB400 was able to grow rapidly in the medium with RL, POE(6) or biphenyl as carbon source. PCBs biodegraded in growing cells were greater than that in resting cells. In growing cells with RL as carbon source, when the incubating time reached 72 h, PCBs Biodegraded was 98.7% and increased by 0.5% compared with that with biphenyl as carbon source. PCBs degraded were the lowest in all kinds of cell systems with POE(6) as carbon source. In the growing cell system,P.LB400 was able to fully utilize RL, so the cell density and PCBs Biodegraded rapidly increased with the increase of the concentration of RL. However, in the resting cell system, RL had negative impact on biodegradation of PCBs.

Influence of chlorine substituents on rates of oxidation of chlorinated biphenyls by the biphenyl dioxygenase of Burkholderia sp. strain LB400

Biphenyl dioxygenase from Burkholderia (Pseudomonas) sp. strain LB400 catalyzes the first reaction of a pathway for the degradation of biphenyl and a broad range of chlorinated biphenyls (CBs). The effect of chlorine substituents on catalysis was determined by measuring the specific activity of the enzyme with biphenyl and 18 congeners. The catalytic oxygenase component was purified and incubated with individual CBs in the presence of electron transport proteins and cofactors that were required for enzyme activity. The rate of depletion of biphenyl from the assay mixture and the rate of formation of cis-biphenyl 2,3-dihydrodiol, the oxidation product, were almost equal, indicating that the assay accurately measured enzyme-specific activity. Four classes of CBs were defined based on their oxidation rates. Class I contained 3-CB and 2,5-CB, which gave rates that were approximately twice that of biphenyl. Class II contained 2,5,3',4'-CB, 2,3,2',5'-CB, 2,3,4,5-CB, 2,3,2',3'-CB, 2,4, 5,2',5'-CB, 2,5,3'-CB, 2,5,4'-CB, 2-CB, and 3,4,5-CB, which gave rates that ranged from 97 to 35% of the biphenyl rate. Class III contained only 2,3,4,2',5'-CB, which gave a rate that was 4% of the biphenyl rate. Class IV contained 2,4,4'-CB, 2,4,2',4'-CB, 3,4,5, 2'-CB, 3,4,5,3'-CB, 3,5,3',5'-CB, and 3,4,5,2',5'-CB, which showed no detectable depletion. Rates were not significantly correlated with the aqueous solubilities of the CBs or the number of chlorine substituents on the rings. Oxidation products were detected for all class I, II, and III congeners and were identified as chlorinated cis-dihydrodiols for classes I and II. The specificity of biphenyl dioxygenase for the CBs examined in this study was determined by the relative positions of the chlorine substituents on the aromatic rings rather than the number of chlorine substituents on the rings.

Production of metabolites from chlorobiphenyls by resting cells ofPseudomonasstrain LB400 after growth on different carbon sources

Cells of Pseudomonas strain LB400, grown on biphenyl, glucose, or glycerol, transformed polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners into chlorobenzoic acid (CBA) metabolites. Transformation of the PCB congeners, 2,3-chlorobiphenyl (CBP), 2,2'-CBP, 2,5,4'-CBP, and 2,4,2',4'-CBP, produced the metabolites, 2,3-CBA, 2-CBA, 4-CBA, and 2,4-CBA, respectively. Rates and extents of PCB transformation and metabolite formation were highest with biphenyl-grown cells. Intermediate rates of metabolite production were observed with glycerol-grown cells, and lowest rates of production were found with glucose-grown cells. Regardless of carbon source, the rate of degradation of congeners was faster than the rate of production of CBAs. Relative rates of PCB transformation and metabolite production from different congeners with cells grown on a particular substrate followed the same general order, 2,3-CBA (from 2,3-CBP) > 2-CBA (from 2,2'-CBP) > 4-CBA (from 2,5,4'-CBP) > 2,4-CBA (from 2,4,2',4'-CBP). Pseudomonas strain LB400 appeared unable to grow on any of the chlorobenzoic acids. However, Pseudomonas strain LB400 cells grown on biphenyl appeared capable of degrading 2-CBA and 2,3-CBA but not 4-CBA nor 2,4-CBA. Cells grown on glycerol appeared unable to metabolize any CBAs.Key words: polychlorinated biphenyls, metabolites, Pseudomonas LB400.

Comparison of the degradation patterns of polychlorinated biphenyl congeners in Aroclors by Pseudomonas strain LB400 after growth on various carbon sources

Resting cells of Pseudomonas strain LB400, grown on biphenyl, transformed 80, 50 and 17% of Aroclor 1242, 1254, and 1260, respectively. Resting cells grown on glucose or glycerol also transformed these polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixtures to the extent of 60, 35, and 9% for Aroclors 1242, 1254, and 1260, respectively. Time courses of the transformation of the separated individual congeners in the Aroclors were plotted and used to determine the transformation rate constants (k). By analysis of the rate constants, it was concluded that the order of degradation of the different congeners in an Aroclor were similar regardless of the growth substrate. In general, k values for the conversion of a particular congener were lower for cells grown on glucose or glycerol compared with cells grown on biphenyl. Generally, k values for the transformation of the same congener in different Aroclors were not the same: rate constants had highest values for the congener in Aroclor 1242 and lowest values in Aroclor 1260. The data allowed congeners to be grouped according to their relative rates of degradation. The ratio of k values for transformation of individual congeners in Aroclors by cells grown on biphenyl and glucose were not constant.