vinelandii STH (Chung, 1970). Additionally, EcSTH activity is improved by preincubation, although the reducers β-mercaptoethanol and DTT lower activity by 28% and 25%, respectively, while EDTA reduces it by 27%.

The organic reagent DMSO had no obvious influence on the activity. We are extremely grateful to Prof. Antony M. Dean for revising our manuscript. This research was supported selleck chemicals by funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31040003; 30870062; 30500300), the Key Laboratory of Biotic Environment and Ecological Safety in Anhui Province and Program for Innovative Research Team in Anhui Normal University. “
“An extensive taxonomic analysis of the bacterial strain Burkholderia sp. DBT1, previously isolated from an oil refinery wastewater drainage, is discussed here. This strain is capable of transforming dibenzothiophene through the ‘destructive’ oxidative pathway referred to as the Kodama pathway. Burkholderia DBT1 has

also been proved to use fluorene, naphthalene and phenanthrene as carbon and energy sources, although growth on the first two compounds requires a preinduction step. This evidence suggests that the strain DBT1 exerts a versatile metabolism towards polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons other than condensed thiophenes. Phylogenetic characterization using a polyphasic approach was carried out to clarify the actual taxonomic position of this strain, potentially exploitable in bioremediation. In particular, investigations were focused on the possible exclusion of Burkholderia sp. DBT1 from the Burkholderia cepacia complex. LDK378 nmr Analysis of the sequences of 16S, recA and gyrB genes along with the DNA–DNA hybridization procedure indicated that the strain DBT1 belongs to the species Burkholderia fungorum, suggesting the proposal of the taxonomic denomination B. fungorum DBT1. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent an extended class of organic compounds containing two or more condensed aromatic rings.

Their molecular stability and hydrophobicity are among the prominent factors that contribute to the persistence of these pollutants in the environment. Moreover, their low aqueous solubility and, consequently, their low bioavailability are the main obstacles to microbial mafosfamide degradation (Cerniglia, 1992). The presence of PAHs in environmental contexts depends on both natural processes (either biogenic or geochemical) and anthropogenic activities (Mueller et al., 1996). Of the PAHs occurring in soils and groundwaters, about 0.04–5% w/w are sulphur heterocycles (Thompson, 1981), among which dibenzothiophene (DBT) represents the prevailing species. Burkholderia sp. DBT1, which was first isolated from an oil refinery sewage drainage, has been proved to lead, within 3 days, to the nearly complete decay of DBT added to the growth substrate, through the so-called Kodama oxidative pathway (Di Gregorio et al., 2004).