Attainment and characterization of a microbial consortium that efficiently degrades biphenyl and related substances

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) mainly including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticides (OPs), have long-term harmful effects on human health and the environment. In this study, a natural consortium BP-W was attained from oil-contaminated soil using biphenyl as the sole carbon source, which is a relatively simple PAH and can form PCBs under certain catalytic conditions. PCR-DGGE techniques were used to analyze the structure of the consortium BP-W. The results showed that this consortium was composed of Chryseobacterium BP-1, Pseudomonas putida BP-2, Stenotrophomonas BP-3, Achromobacter BP-4, and an uncultured bacterium. The consortium BP-W degraded 99.88 % of 1 g L −1 biphenyl in 72 h. The degradation ratios of 100 mg L −1 naphthalene, phenanthrene, pyrene, and PCB77 in 5 days were 100 %, 97.54 %, 42.26 %, and 26.73 %, respectively. Notably, the consortium BP-W exhibited a high tolerance for these POPs. In the binary-substrate and ternary-substrate systems, the consortium BP-W was still able to rapidly degrade organic substrates. The results of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed that biphenyl was completely degraded by BP-W and entered the TCA cycle through the protocatechuic acid pathway, and no other highly toxic metabolites were produced during the degradation process. Thus, this consortium BP-W may have potential utility for the environmental-friendly and cost-effective bioremediation of POPs.