Chlorophenol production by anaerobic microorganisms: transformation of a biogenic chlorinated hydroquinone metabolite.
Chlorinated hydroquinones of biological origin are fully dechlorinated to 1,4-dihydroquinone by anaerobic bacteria such as Desulfitobacterium spp. (C. E. Milliken, G. P. Meier, J. E. M. Watts, K. R. Sowers, and H. D. May, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70:385-392, 2004). In the present study, mixed microbial communities from Baltimore Harbor sediment and a pure culture of Desulfitobacterium sp. strain PCE1 were discovered to demethylate, reductively dehydroxylate, and dechlorinate chlorinated hydroquinones into chlorophenols. Mixed microbial cultures from a freshwater source and several other desulfitobacteria in pure culture did not perform these reactions. Desulfitobacterium sp. strain PCE1 degraded 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-4-methoxyphenol, a metabolite of basidiomycete fungi, to 2,3,5,6-tetrachlorophenol and 2,3,5-trichlorophenol, recalcitrant compounds that are primarily synthesized anthropogenically.
Milliken
C E
CE
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina 29425-2230, USA.
Meier
G P
GP
Sowers
K R
KR
May
H D
HD
D000693:Anaerobiosis; D015142:Baltimore; D001711:Biotransformation; D002733:Chlorophenols / Q000378:metabolism*; D045858:Desulfitobacterium / Q000378:metabolism*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology; D006873:Hydroquinones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
D002733:Chlorophenols; D006873:Hydroquinones