Four plasmids, each encoding a combination of either an Escherichia coli or Pseudomonas putida promoter and either toluene dioxygenase or toluene monooxygenase, were electroporated into five bacterial strains isolated from sediments found at depths of 91 to 295 m. Four of these engineered bacterial strains demonstrated both toluene and trichloroethylene degradation activities.

The possibility that electrodes might serve as an electron acceptor to simulate the degradation of aromatic hydrocarbons in anaerobic contaminated sediments was investigated. Initial studies with Geobacter metallireducens demonstrated that although toluene was rapidly adsorbed onto the graphite electrodes it was rapidly oxidized to carbon dioxide with the electrode serving as the sole electron ...

In the present study, microbial toluene degradation in controlled constructed wetland model systems, planted fixed-bed reactors (PFRs), was queried with DNA-based methods in combination with stable isotope fractionation analysis and characterization of toluene-degrading microbial isolates. Two PFR replicates were operated with toluene as the sole external carbon and electron source for 2 years....

The water contaminant N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) is a probable human carcinogen whose appearance in the environment is related to the release of rocket fuel and to chlorine-based disinfection of water and wastewater. Although this compound has been shown to be biodegradable, there is minimal information about the organisms capable of this degradation, and little is understood of the mechanis...

The ability of encapsulated Burkholderia cepacia G4 (ATCC 53617) for trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation (1.5, 5, 10, and 20mg/L) in the presence of toluene (10 and 60mg/L) as enhancement substrate was evaluated experimentally. Burkholderia cepacia G4 cultures were encapsulated in cylindrical pellets (4mm in diameter and 4mm in height (preferred)) using polyethylene glycol (PEG). Higher transfo...

BACKGROUND: Mathematical models describing the physical, chemical and biological processes that take place in bioremediation are necessary to design and optimise these technologies. This work models the effect of toluene as a gaseous cosubstrate in the degradation of phenanthrene in soil, considering the consumption of pollutants, the production of intermediate degradation compounds and mineral...

The enzymatic degradability of poly(vinyl acetate) was investigated in toluene solutions at various temperatures with hog pancreas lipase. The polymer degraded by specific scission to yield oligomeric products with a molecular weight of 700. Continuous distribution kinetics were used to determine the rate coefficients. The variation of the rate coefficients with the temperature indicated an opt...

Permeabilized cells of toluene-mineralizing, sulfate-reducing strain PRTOL1 catalyzed the addition of toluene to fumarate to form benzylsuccinate under anaerobic conditions. Recent in vitro studies with two toluene-mineralizing, denitrifying bacteria demonstrated the same fumarate addition reaction and indicated that it may be the first step of anaerobic toluene degradation. This study with str...

Pseudomonas cepacia G4 is capable of cometabolic degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) if the organism is grown on certain aromatic compounds. To obtain more insight into the kinetics of TCE degradation and the effect of TCE transformation products, we have investigated the simultaneous conversion of toluene and TCE in steady-state continuous culture. The organism was grown in a chemostat with...