Characteristics of Arthrobacter sp. W1 for phenol biodegradation and acquisition of phenol hydroxylase gene

To obtain novel salt-tolerant phenol-degrading bacteria and amplify the corresponding genes, a bacterium named W1 was isolated from the active sludge samples. 16S rRNA sequence analysis was used to identify the bacterium, and characteristics for phenol biodegradation were also studied. The 5'- and 3' -flanking regions of gene encoding the phenol hydroxylase were amplified from strain W1 by TAIL-PCR method. 1wt%-10wt% was showed that strain W1 was identified as Arthrobacter sp. The strain was capable of growing in the medium with 1wt%-10wt% NaCl and utilizing phenol as the sole carbon and energy source. And it could also degrade some other aromatic compounds such as p-methylphenol, salicylic acid and p-hydroquinone, etc. When concentration of NaCl was about 5wt%, 1000 mg · L^-1 phenol could be degraded more than 90% by strain W1. The complete gene cluster was about 6 kb, of which the gene encoding the large subunit of phenol hydroxylase exhibited the highest similarity about 93% with the corresponding gene of Alcaligenes sp.