Isolation and Genomic Analysis of 3-Chlorobenzoate-Degrading Bacteria from Soil

The compound 3-chlorobenzoate (3-CBA) is a hazardous industrial waste product that can harm human health and the environment. This study investigates the physiological and genetic potential for 3-chlorobenzoate (3-CBA) degradation. Six 3-CBA Gram-negative degraders with different degradation properties belonging to the genera Caballeronia, Paraburkholderia and Cupriavidus were isolated from the soil. The representative strains Caballeronia 19CS4-2 and Paraburkholderia 19CS9-1 showed higher maximum specific growth rates (µmax, h^-1) than Cupriavidus 19C6 and degraded 5 mM 3-CBA within 20-28 h. Two degradation products, chloro-cis,cis-muconate and maleylacetate, were detected in all isolates using high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Genomic analyses revealed the presence of cbe and tfd gene clusters in strains 19CS4-2 and 19CS9-1, indicating that they probably metabolized the 3-CBA via the chlorocatechol ortho-cleavage pathway. Strain 19C6 possessed cbe genes, but not tfd genes, suggesting it might have a different chlorocatechol degradation pathway. Putative genes for the metabolism of 3-hydroxybenzoate via gentisate were found only in 19C6, which utilized the compound as a sole carbon source. 19C6 exhibited distinct characteristics from strains 19CS4-2 and 19CS9-1. The results confirm that bacteria can degrade 3-CBA and improve our understanding of how they contribute to environmental 3-CBA biodegradation.

Molecular perspectives and recent advances in microbial remediation of persistent organic pollutants

Nutrition and pollution stress stimulate genetic adaptation in microorganisms and assist in evolution of diverse metabolic pathways for their survival on several complex organic compounds. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are highly lipophilic in nature and cause adverse effects to the environment and human health by biomagnification through the food chain. Diverse microorganisms, harboring numerous plasmids and catabolic genes, acclimatize to these environmentally unfavorable conditions by gene duplication, mutational drift, hypermutation, and recombination. Genetic aspects of some major POP catabolic genes such as biphenyl dioxygenase (bph), DDT 2,3-dioxygenase, and angular dioxygenase assist in degradation of biphenyl, organochlorine pesticides, and dioxins/furans, respectively. Microbial metagenome constitutes the largest genetic reservoir with miscellaneous enzymatic activities implicated in degradation. To tap the metabolic potential of microorganisms, recent techniques like sequence and function-based screening and substrate-induced gene expression are proficient in tracing out novel catabolic genes from the entire metagenome for utilization in enhanced biodegradation. The major endeavor of today's scientific world is to characterize the exact genetic mechanisms of microbes for bioremediation of these toxic compounds by excavating into the uncultured plethora. This review entails the effect of POPs on the environment and involvement of microbial catabolic genes for their removal with the advanced techniques of bioremediation.