title: Organohalide Respiring Bacteria and Reductive Dehalogenases: Key Tools in Organohalide Bioremediation.
abstract: Organohalides are recalcitrant pollutants that have been responsible for substantial contamination of soils and groundwater. Organohalide-respiring bacteria (ORB) provide a potential solution to remediate contaminated sites, through their ability to use organohalides as terminal electron acceptors to yield energy for growth (i.e., organohalide respiration). Ideally, this process results in non- or lesser-halogenated compounds that are mostly less toxic to the environment or more easily degraded. At the heart of these processes are reductive dehalogenases (RDases), which are membrane bound enzymes coupled with other components that facilitate dehalogenation of organohalides to generate cellular energy. This review focuses on RDases, concentrating on those which have been purified (partially or wholly) and functionally characterized. Further, the paper reviews the major bacteria involved in organohalide breakdown and the evidence for microbial evolution of RDases. Finally, the capacity for using ORB in a bioremediation and bioaugmentation capacity are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Bat-Erdene
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Jugder
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South WalesSydney, NSW, Australia; Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul UniversityIstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Haluk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ertan
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South WalesSydney, NSW, Australia; Department of Biotechnology, Mannheim University of Applied SciencesMannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bohl
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Christopher P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Marquis
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manefield
keywords: Dehalobacter; Dehalococcoides; bioremediation; organohalide respiration; reductive dehalogenase