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Research article2008Peer reviewedOpen access

Use of bromodeoxyuridine immunocapture to identify psychrotolerant phenanthrene-degrading bacteria in phenanthrene-enriched polluted Baltic Sea sediments

Edlund, Anna; Jansson, Janet K.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to enrich and identify psychrotolerant phenanthrene-degrading bacteria from polluted Baltic Sea sediments. Polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated sediments were spiked with phenanthrene and incubated for 2 months in the presence of bromodeoxyuridine that is incorporated into the DNA of replicating cells. The bromodeoxyuridine-incorporated DNA was extracted by immunocapture and analyzed by terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism and 16S rRNA gene cloning and sequencing to identify bacterial populations that were growing. In addition, degradation genes were quantified in the bromodeoxyuridine-incorporated DNA by real-time PCR. Phenanthrene concentrations decreased after 2 months of incubation in the phenanthrene-enriched sediments and this reduction correlated to increases in copy numbers of xylE and phnAc dioxygenase genes. Representatives of Exiguobacterium, Schewanella, Methylomonas, Pseudomonas, Bacteroides and an uncultured Deltaproteobacterium and a Gammaproteobacterium dominated the growing community in the phenanthrene-spiked sediments. Isolates that were closely related to three of these bacteria (two pseudomonads and an Exiguobacterium sp.) could reduce phenanthrene concentrations in pure cultures and they all harbored phnAc dioxygenase genes. These results confirm that this combination of culture-based and molecular approaches was useful for identification of actively growing bacterial species with a high potential for phenanthrene degradation.

Published in

FEMS Microbiology Ecology
2008, Volume: 65, number: 3, pages: 513-525
Publisher: BLACKWELL PUBLISHING

      SLU Authors

      • Sustainable Development Goals

      SDG3 Good health and well-being
      SDG14 Life below water

      UKÄ Subject classification

      Microbiology
      Ecology
      Fish and Aquacultural Science

      Publication identifier

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6941.2008.00513.x

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/19721