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Title: Mutualistic interaction between dichloromethane- and chloromethane-degrading bacteria in an anaerobic mixed culture: Mutualistic degradation of chlorinated methanes

Journal Article · · Environmental Microbiology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  2. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Eberhard Karls Univ., Tubingen (Germany)
  3. Parsons, Denver, CO (United States)
  4. Corporate Remediation Group, E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, DE (United States)
  5. The Chemours Company, Wilmington, DE (United States)
  6. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
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The microbial mixed culture RM grows with dichloromethane (DCM) as the sole energy source generating acetate, methane, chloride and biomass as products. Chloromethane (CM) was not an intermediate during DCM utilization consistent with the observation that CM could not replace DCM as a growth substrate. Interestingly, cultures that received DCM and CM together degraded both compounds concomitantly. Transient hydrogen (H2) formation reaching a maximum concentration of 205 ± 13 ppmv was observed in cultures growing with DCM, and the addition of exogenous H2 at concentrations exceeding 3000 ppmv impeded DCM degradation. In contrast, CM degradation in culture RM had a strict requirement for H2. Following five consecutive transfers on CM and H2, Acetobacterium 16S rRNA gene sequences dominated the culture and the DCM-degrader Candidatus Dichloromethanomonas elyunquensis was eliminated, consistent with the observation that the culture lost the ability to degrade DCM. These findings demonstrate that culture RM harbours different populations responsible for anaerobic DCM and CM metabolism, and further imply that the DCM and CM degradation pathways are mechanistically distinct. H2 generated during DCM degradation is consumed by the hydrogenotrophic CM degrader, or may fuel other hydrogenotrophic processes, including organohalide respiration, methanogenesis and H2/CO2 reductive acetogenesis.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1474542
Journal Information:
Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 19, Issue 11; ISSN 1462-2912
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 22 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Mineralization versus fermentation: evidence for two distinct anaerobic bacterial degradation pathways for dichloromethane journal January 2020
Proteogenomics Reveals Novel Reductive Dehalogenases and Methyltransferases Expressed during Anaerobic Dichloromethane Metabolism journal January 2019

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