Polychlorinated Biphenyl Transformation, Peroxidase and Oxidase Activities of Fungi and Bacteria Isolated from a Historically Contaminated Site

Abstract

Causing major health and ecological disturbances, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants still recovered all over the world. Microbial PCB biotransformation is a promising technique for depollution, but the involved molecular mechanisms remain misunderstood. Ligninolytic enzymes are suspected to be involved in many PCB transformations, but their assessments remain scarce. To further inventory the capabilities of microbes to transform PCBs through their ligninolytic enzymes, we investigated the role of oxidase and peroxidase among a set of microorganisms isolated from a historically PCB-contaminated site. Among 29 isolated fungi and 17 bacteria, this work reports for the first time the PCB-transforming capabilities from fungi affiliated to Didymella, Dothiora, Ilyonectria, Naganishia, Rhodoturula, Solicoccozyma, Thelebolus and Truncatella genera and bacteria affiliated to Peribacillus frigotolerans, Peribacillus muralis, Bacillus mycoides, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus toyonensis, Pseudarthrobacter sp., Pseudomonas chlororaphis, Erwinia aphidicola and Chryseobacterium defluvii. In the same way, this is the first report of fungal isolates affiliated to the Dothiora maculans specie and Cladosporium genus that displayed oxidase (putatively laccase) and peroxidase activity, respectively, enhanced in the presence of PCBs (more than 4-fold and 20-fold, respectively, compared to controls). Based on these results, the observed activities are suspected to be involved in PCB transformation.