Isolation and characteristics of a novel biphenyl-degrading bacterial strain, Dyella ginsengisoli LA-4

A novel biphenyl-degrading bacterial strain LA-4 was isolated from activated sludge. It was identified as Dyella ginsengisoli according to phylogenetic similarity of 16S rRNA gene sequence. This isolate could utilize biphenyl as sole source of carbon and energy, which degraded over 95 mg/L biphenyl within 36 h. The major metabolites formed from biphenyl, such as 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhexa-2,4-dienoic acid (HOPDA) and benzoic acid, were identified by LC-MS. The crude cell extract of strain LA-4 exhibited the activity of 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase (2,3-DHBD) and the kinetic parameters K_m was 26.48 μmol/L and V_max was 8.12 U/mg protein. A conserved region of the biphenyl dioxygenase gene bphA1 of strain LA-4 was amplified by PCR and confirmed by DNA sequencing.