Soap-like molecules help bacteria break down toxic pollutants faster
Hemmadi V, Makkar RS, Jones JW, Marshall CW, Place AR
Phytoremediation
The contaminated soil under old industrial lots and waterways near many neighborhoods could one day be cleaned up more affordably thanks to a lab breakthrough that makes pollution-eating bacteria easier to grow at scale.
There's a special bacterium that can break down nasty man-made chemicals, PCBs and a solvent called PCE, but it's been hard to grow in large amounts because it needed a mystery ingredient from another microbe. Researchers figured out that ingredient is a type of natural soap molecule, and swapping in a store-bought version works just as well. This means scientists can now grow much more of this cleanup bacterium reliably, which is a big step toward using it to treat polluted soil and water on a larger scale.
Key Findings
The growth-boosting factor from Pseudodesulfovibrio sp. was identified as rhamnolipid-type biosurfactants, including mono- and di-rhamnolipids with C8-C12 acyl chains.
Commercial rhamnolipids successfully replaced undefined coculture extracts, stimulating Dehalobium chlorocoercia DF-1 growth and dechlorination of PCE and PCB congeners (PCB 61 and PCB 199) in a dose-dependent manner.
Maximal dechlorination rates occurred at submicellar rhamnolipid concentrations, with higher concentrations proving inhibitory, and the effect works by solubilizing hydrophobic pollutants to make them more bioavailable.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that soap-like molecules called rhamnolipids help a pollution-eating bacterium grow better and break down toxic industrial chemicals like PCBs and chlorinated solvents, making it easier to mass-produce this microbe for cleaning up contaminated sites.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Rhamnolipid-augmented medium enhances growth of Dehalobium chlorocoercia on chloroethenes and polychlorinated biphenyls.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and chlorinated ethenes, such as perchloroethene (PCE), are persistent environmental contaminants that pose significant ecological and health risks. Dehalobium chlo...
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