Ocean bacterium quickly breaks down foul-smelling manure compound
Li G, Meng N, Zhang J, Liu J, Kuang W
Phytoremediation
If you've ever caught a whiff of a nearby farm or wastewater plant on a walk, this points toward a microbial tool that could neutralize that smell at the source instead of just masking it.
Skatole is the chemical mostly responsible for the smell of manure and sewage, and it's hard to clean up once it gets into salty water like coastal wetlands. Researchers found a bacterium living in ocean sediment that eats skatole for food, breaking it down completely in as little as 6 to 24 hours depending on conditions. When they added this bacterium to contaminated mud, it sped up the cleanup dramatically, which could help control odor pollution near farms, ports, and waste facilities.
Key Findings
Rhodococcus sp. SJ-2, isolated from a marine-enriched microbial consortium, completely removed 100 mg/L of skatole within 24 hours in nutrient broth and 60 hours in marine mineral medium.
The strain remained active across a broad range of conditions: 30-35°C, pH 6.0-9.0, and salinity from 0 to 45 parts per thousand NaCl.
Adding SJ-2 to freshwater and marine sediment microcosms cut complete skatole removal time to just 6 and 12 hours respectively, and boosted native Rhodococcus abundance and aromatic-compound-degrading microbial functions.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found a marine bacterium that can rapidly break down skatole, the compound behind manure and sewage stench, in both salty and fresh water. Adding this microbe to contaminated sediment cut cleanup time from days to hours.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Harnessing a marine-derived Rhodococcus strain for cross-habitat bioaugmentation of malodorant skatole: Performance and ecological response.
Skatole, primarily generated via the anaerobic metabolism of tryptophan, is a pervasive nitrogenous heterocyclic malodorant. While ubiquitous in various environments, its microbial remediation in s...
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