Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1038/nature01237
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Title (Primary) Reductive dehalogenation of chlorinated dioxins by an anaerobic bacterium
Author Bunge, M.; Adrian, L.; Kraus, A.; Opel, M.; Lorenz, W.G.; Andreesen, J.R.; Görisch, H.; Lechner, U.
Source Titel Nature
Year 2003
Department ISOBIO
Volume 421
Issue 6921
Page From 357
Page To 360
Language englisch
Supplements https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01237/figures/1
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01237/figures/2
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01237/figures/3
Abstract Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDDs and PCDFs) are among the most notorious environmental pollutants. Some congeners, particularly those with lateral chlorine substitutions at positions 2, 3, 7 and 8, are extremely toxic and carcinogenic to humans1. One particularly promising mechanism for the detoxification of PCDDs and PCDFs is microbial reductive dechlorination. So far only a limited number of phylogenetically diverse anaerobic bacteria have been found that couple the reductive dehalogenation of chlorinated compounds—the substitution of a chlorine for a hydrogen atom—to energy conservation and growth in a process called dehalorespiration2. Microbial dechlorination of PCDDs occurs in sediments and anaerobic mixed cultures from sediments, but the responsible organisms have not yet been identified or isolated. Here we show the presence of a Dehalococcoides species in four dioxin-dechlorinating enrichment cultures from a freshwater sediment highly contaminated with PCDDs and PCDFs. We also show that the previously described chlorobenzene-dehalorespiring bacterium Dehalococcoides sp. strain CBDB1 (ref. 3) is able to reductively dechlorinate selected dioxin congeners. Reductive dechlorination of 1,2,3,7,8-pentachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (PeCDD) demonstrates that environmentally significant dioxins are attacked by this bacterium.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=4758
Bunge, M., Adrian, L., Kraus, A., Opel, M., Lorenz, W.G., Andreesen, J.R., Görisch, H., Lechner, U. (2003):
Reductive dehalogenation of chlorinated dioxins by an anaerobic bacterium
Nature 421 (6921), 357 - 360 10.1038/nature01237