Rapid screening for bacteria capable of degrading toxic organic compounds

Routine procedures for isolating and characterizing microorganisms capable of degrading toxic chemicals are time consuming and labor intensive. The objective of this paper is to describe a new method for screening aerobic bacterial isolates and consortia that will rapidly determine metabolic capacity for various toxic chemicals and access the use of various substrates as inducers in the degradation process. This method uses the Biolog ® multiwell plate technology a four-step method that includes inoculation followed by incubation of a uniform suspension of cells into a microtiter plate to test more than 40 bacterial isolates and mixtures against 30 target toxic chemicals. Several bacteria and consortia have been shown to degrade toxic chemicals at concentrations of 10-500 ppm. These results indicate that Biolog ® GN and MT plates are useful tools for screening bacterial isolates and consortia for their ability to survive metabolize, and potentially degrade selected organic chemicals.