Microbial degradation of polyethylene glycols.
Mono-, di-, tri-, and tetraethylene glycols and polyethylene glycols (PEG) with molecular weight up to 20,000 were degraded by soil microorganisms. A strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa able to use a PEG of average molecular weight 20,000 was isolated from soil. Washed cells oxidized mono- and tetraethylene glycols, but O2 consumption was not detectable when such cells were incubated for short periods with PEG 20,000. However, the bacteria excreted an enzyme which converted low- and high-molecular-weight PEG to a product utilized by washed P. aeruginosa cells. Gas chromatography of the supernatant of a culture grown on PEG 20,000 revealed the presence of a compound co-chromatographing with diethylene glycol. A metabolite formed from PEG 20,000 by the extracellular enzyme preparation was identified as ethylene glycol by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000378:metabolism*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
D004798:Enzymes; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols