Research Product

Of the volatile organic chemicals found as common ground-water contaminants, trichloroethylene (TCE) has received significant attention; and as a result, a number of bacterial systems with the ability to degrade TCE by cometabolism are now recognized. In these systems, TCE is degraded by bacterial enzymes that are typically expressed following induction with other chemicals. Previously, one of these TCE-degrading organisms was isolated by investigators at the Gulf Breeze Environmental Research Laboratory. This organism has subsequently been indentified as Pseudomonas cepacia strain G4 and requires either toluene, o-cresol, m-cresol, or phenol for induction of TCE degradative enzymes. A novel toluene degradative pathway involving sequential hydroxylation of toluene at ortho and meta positions to form 3-methylcatechol has been characterized. TCE is completely degraded to CO2, Cl, and unidentified, nonvolatile products by this organism.