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Effect of 2-hydroxybenzoate on the maintenance of naphthalene-degrading pseudomonads in seeded and unseeded soil

Journal Article · · Applied and Environmental Microbiology; (United States)
OSTI ID:5946373
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Irvine (United States)

The addition of specific nontoxic inducers of catabolic operons to contaminated sites is an approach that may enhance the efficiency of in situ biodegradation. The authors determined the genetic response of six pseudomonads to salicylate (also known as 2-hydroxybenzoate) added directly to 50 g of nonsterile soil samples. The strains, isolated from a polyaromatic hydrocarbon-contaminated soil, metabolized naphthalene as the sole source of available carbon, and their DNA sequences show significantly homology to the nahAB genes of the degradative plasmid NAH7. Experimental soil cultures were seeded with naphthalene-degrading strains originally isolated from the soil and amended with salicylate. Soil samples were analyzed periodically for the population density of heterotrophic bacteria and naphthalene degraders and for the abundance of the naphthalene-degradative genotype in the bacterial community. At 160 {mu}g g{sup {minus}1}, salicylate sustained the density of naphthalene degraders at the introduced density for 30 days in addition to producing a two- to sixfold increase in the occurrence in the bacterial community of DNA sequences homologous to the nah operon. No change in recoverable bacterial population densities was observed when soil samples were amended with 16 {mu}g of salicylate g{sup {minus}1}, but this population densities was observed when soil samples were amended with 16 {mu}g of salicylate g{sup {minus}1}, but this concentration of salicylate induced a significant increase in the level of nah-related genes in the population.

OSTI ID:
5946373
Journal Information:
Applied and Environmental Microbiology; (United States), Journal Name: Applied and Environmental Microbiology; (United States) Vol. 57:10; ISSN 0099-2240; ISSN AEMID
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English