Overview of biomolecular methods for monitoring bioremediation performance
- Battelle Pacific Northwest, Richland, WA (United States)
Determining the success of in situ bioremediation is complicated by a number of factors, including assembling a contaminant mass balance at field sites, distinguishing biotic from abiotic loss of contaminant, and proving that biodegradative-potential assays and culture-based enrichments and enumerations performed in the laboratory provide accurate information on what is occurring in situ. Biomolecular methods are now being used to characterize the nucleic acids or cell membranes of the microbial community in the environmental sample. The major advantage of these molecular characterization methods is that the analyses are direct, whereas analyses performed on any kind of laboratory incubation are indirect and involve artifactual changes in the microbial community structure and metabolic activity. Because samples are immediately frozen after acquisition, direct molecular methods preserve the in situ metabolic status and microbial community composition. In addition, direct extraction of nucleic acids or cell membranes from environmental samples accounts for the very large proportion of microorganisms that are not readily cultured in the laboratory but may be responsible for the majority of the biodegradative activity of interest.
- OSTI ID:
- 492231
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950483-; ISBN 1-57477-006-3; TRN: IM9730%%110
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 3. international in situ and on-site bioreclamation symposium, San Diego, CA (United States), 24-27 Apr 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Monitoring and verification of bioremediation; Hinchee, R.E. [ed.] [Battelle Memorial Inst., Columbus, OH (United States)]; Douglas, G.S. [ed.] [Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Ong, S.K. [ed.] [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)]; PB: 283 p.; Bioremediation, Volume 3(5)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Biodegradation of petroleum constituents by aquifer microbial communities
Using artificial neural network tools to analyze microbial biomarker data