Dehalogenation of brominated phenolic compounds by environmental microorganisms

Reductive dehalogenation of brominated phenolic compounds by microorganisms associated with the marine sponge Aplysina aerophoba.

Marine sponges are natural sources of brominated organic compounds, including bromoindoles, bromophenols, and bromopyrroles, that may comprise up to 12% of the sponge dry weight. Aplysina aerophoba sponges harbor large numbers of bacteria that can amount to 40% of the biomass of the animal. We postulated that there might be mechanisms for microbially mediated degradation of these halogenated ch...

Aplysina aerophoba Associated with the Marine Sponge Phenolic Compounds by Microorganisms Reductive Dehalogenation of Brominated

Enzymatic dehalogenation of certain brominated and chlorinated compounds.

The dehalogenation in vivo of brominated aliphatic hydrocarbons such as methyl bromide (1) and bromochloromethane (2) has been demonstrated by recovery of inorganic bromide from blood and urine. The intracellular formation of bromide and methyl alcohol from methyl bromide has been advanced as an explanation for its prolonged toxic effect (3). Evidence for the splitting of chlorinated aliphatic ...

biotransformation of mercury compounds by environmental microorganisms

forty bacteria species commonly found in soil, sediments, and sewage effluent were exposed for acclimation to inorganic and organic mercury compounds using sterilized sediments as the culture medium. screening tests for the ability of microorganisms to methylate inorganic mercury were made on all 40 species after acclimation to 13.5 mg/i mercuric chloride. additional screening tests for demethy...

Complete reductive dehalogenation of brominated biphenyls by anaerobic microorganisms in sediment.

We sought to determine whether microorganisms from the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated sediment in Woods Pond (Lenox, Mass.) could dehalogenate brominated biphenyls. The PCB dechlorination specificities for the microorganisms in this sediment have been well characterized. This allowed us to compare the dehalogenation specificities for brominated biphenyls and chlorinated biphenyls w...