Isolation and characterization of a phenanthrene-degrading bacterial strain

A bacterial strain that degrades phenanthrene was isolated from activated sludge of wastewater treatment plant from a chemical corporation. The strain can utilize phenanthrene as sole source of carbon and energy. It was identified as Burkholderia sp. according to morphological and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Phenanthrene (100 mg·L^-1) was removed 74.1% within 84 h by this strain. It was suggested that the strain possessed the salicylic acid pathway by LC-MS and UV methods. And the strain contains an inductive catechol 2, 3-dioxygenase (C230). The kinetic constants K_m and V_max were 10.93μmol·L^-1 and 106.38μmol·min^-1, receptively. It indicates that the affinity of the endoenzyme to catechol is great and catechol is a better substrate.