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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.01695-08
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Influence of Soil Components on Biodegradation of Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and (o, m, p-) Xylenes by newly isolated Pseudoxanthomonas spadix BD-a59

Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, HeukSeok-Dong, Seoul, 156-756, Republic of Korea; Environmental Biotechnology National Core Research Center, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 660-701, Republic of Korea; Biological Resource Center, KRIBB, Daejeon, 305-806, Republic of Korea; Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853-8101, U.S.A.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: cojeon{at}cau.ac.kr.

	Abstract

A bacterium designated strain BD-a59, able to degrade all six BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and o, m, p-xylenes) compounds, was isolated by plating gasoline-contaminated sediment from a gas station in Geoje, Korea without enrichment on minimal salts basal (MSB) agar containing 0.01% yeast extract with BTEX as the sole carbon and energy source. Taxonomic analyses showed that the isolate belonged to Pseudoxanthomonas spadix and until now the genus Pseudoxanthomonas has not included any known BTEX degrader. The BTEX biodegradation rate was very slow in MSB broth, but adding a small amount of yeast extract greatly enhanced the biodegradation. Interestingly, degradation occurred very quickly in slurry systems amended with sterile soil solids, but not with aqueous soil extract. Moreover, if soil was combusted first to remove organic matter, the enhancement effect on BTEX biodegradation was lost, indicating that some components of insoluble organic compounds are nutritionally beneficial for BTEX degradation. RT-PCR-based analysis of field-fixed mRNA revealed expression of the TmoA gene whose sequence was closely related to that carried by strain BD-a59. This study suggests that strain BD-a59 has the potential to assist in BTEX biodegradation at contaminated sites.