Screening of low-molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons degrading strains,construction of bacterial consortium,and degradation mechanism
Representative substances of low-molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs),phenanthrene and pyrene,are characterized by low solubility,difficult degradation,and high toxicity.Many types of pollutants coexist in actual PAHs and PAH-contaminated sites.The degradation ability of a single strain is limited;therefore,the degradation of mixed substrates by compound bacteria to treat PAH contamination must be crucially studied.In this study,two strains of low-molecular-weight PAH-degrading bacteria,RS and BZ,were screened from petroleum-contaminated soil and identified by 16S rRNA sequence comparison as Cellulosimicrobium and Brucella respectively.Both strains grew using phenanthrene and pyrene as the sole carbon sources.Within 120 h,strains RS and BZ exhibited 44.10%and 34.20%phenanthrene degradation and 22.50%and 25.30%pyrene degradation,respectively.An orthogonal experiment was used to determine the ratio of strains RS and BZ constructed into the PP-RSBZ complex bacteria.The effects of pH and the concentration of additional high-quality carbon sources on the degradation were investigated using the single-factor method.The results demonstrated that under the conditions of strain RS:BZ=3:1(V/V),pH=7,the degradation efficiency of PP-RSBZ for phenanthrene and pyrene mixed substrate was 45.63%in 120 h,which was 1.65-1.84 times higher than that of the single strain.The biodegradation pathways of phenanthrene and pyrene were estimated using whole-genome sequencing.This study provides novel strains for degrading low-molecular-weight PAHs.Complex bacteria were constructed to degrade the mixed substrate,degradation conditions were optimized,and degradation pathways were speculated.