Inability of bacteria to degrade low concentrations of toluene in water

Microbial utilization of low concentrations of toluene in water was investigated. When bacteria that were not actively degrading toluene were incubated in solutions containing 2.1 to 11 μg of toluene/L, the concentrations remaining in solution after 8 d ranged from 0.69 to 0.99 μg/L. However, when the initial concentration was ≥31 μg/L, the concentration remaining was <0.2 μg/L. When bacteria actively degrading toluene were inoculated into solutions containing 0.9 μg of toluene/L, the concentration remaining after 8 d was 79 ng/L. We propose that the inability of some bacteria to maintain or attain high metabolic activity on a compound present at low concentrations may prevent its rapid degradation in natural environments.

[1]  M. F. Mallette.  VALIDITY OF THE CONCEPT OF ENERGY OF MAINTENANCE , 1963, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[2]  P. R. Bevington,et al.  Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences , 1969 .

[3]  H. E. Rubin,et al.  Kinetics and Extent of Mineralization of Organic Chemicals at Trace Levels in Freshwater and Sewage , 1982, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[4]  R. Fall,et al.  Enzyme recruitment allows the biodegradation of recalcitrant branched hydrocarbons by Pseudomonas citronellolis , 1979, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[5]  M. Shuler,et al.  Predicting threshold concentrations of organic substrates for bacterial growth , 1985 .

[6]  S. K. Schmidt,et al.  Effects of dissolved organic carbon and second substrates on the biodegradation of organic compounds at low concentrations , 1985, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[7]  B. Robertson,et al.  Toluene Induction and Uptake Kinetics and Their Inclusion in the Specific-Affinity Relationship for Describing Rates of Hydrocarbon Metabolism , 1987, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[8]  D. Button,et al.  Modulation of Affinity of a Marine Pseudomonad for Toluene and Benzene by Hydrocarbon Exposure , 1986, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[9]  S. Boyd,et al.  Maintenance and induction of naphthalene degradation activity in Pseudomonas putida and an Alcaligenes sp. under different culture conditions , 1995, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[10]  R. Ely,et al.  A cometabilic kinetics model incorporating enzyme inhbition, inactivation, and recovery: I. Model development, analysis, and testing , 1995, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[11]  E. A. Barnsley.  Role and regulation of the ortho and meta pathways of catechol metabolism in pseudomonads metabolizing naphthalene and salicylate , 1976, Journal of bacteriology.