Establishment of polychlorinated biphenyl-degrading enrichment culture with predominantly meta dechlorination

Abstract

Enrichment of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-dechlorinating microorganisms from PCB-contaminated sediments from the Upper Hudson River, N.Y., was attempted. The enrichment strategy was to use pyruvate as the electron donor and dechlorination of Aroclor 1242 as the electron acceptor. The enrichment medium also contained non-PCB-contaminated Hudson River sediments, which were required for the PCB-dechlorinating activity. An enrichment culture (that had stable PCBT-dechlorinating activity over nine serial transfers during 1 year) was established under these conditions; however, the rate of dechlorination did not increase after the second serial transfer. Dechlorination occurred primarily from the meta positions of the biphenyl molecule. Hydrogen could be substituted for pyruvate as the electron donor with equal activity, but when acetate was used as the electron donor a delay in dechlorination was observed. Sulfate and bromethane sulfonate inhibited dechlorination activity. The pyruvate-Aroclor 1242 enrichment also dechlorinated Aroclors 1248, 1254, and 1260; the extent of chlorine removed was the greatest for Aroclor 1254. For comparison, nonautoclaved non-PCB-contaminated Hudson River sediments used in the assay also dechlorinated Aroclors, but only after 12 to 16 weeks of incubation. This suggests that PCB-dechlorinating organisms were also present in these sediments but in numbers lower than those in the enrichment culture.