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Engineering a recombinant Deinococcus radiodurans for organopollutant degradation in radioactive mixed waste environments

Nature Biotechnology volume 16, pages 929–933 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Thousands of waste sites around the world contain mixtures of toxic chlorinated solvents, hydrocarbon solvents, and radionuclides. Because of the inherent danger and expense of cleaning up such wastes by physicochemical methods, other methods are being pursued for cleanup of those sites. One alternative is to engineer radiation-resistant microbes that degrade or transform such wastes to less hazardous mixtures. We describe the construction and characterization of recombinant Deinococcus radiodurans, the most radiation-resistant organism known, expressing toluene dioxygenase (TDO). Cloning of the tod genes (which encode the multicomponent TDO) into the chromosome of this bacterium imparted to the strain the ability to oxidize toluene, chlorobenzene, 3,4-dichloro-1-butene, and indole. The recombinant strain was capable of growth and functional synthesis of TDO in the highly irradiating environment (60 Gy/h) of a 137Cs irradiator, where 5×108 cells/ml degraded 125 nmol/ml of chlorobenzene in 150 min. D. radiodurans strains were also tolerant to the solvent effects of toluene and trichloroethylene at levels exceeding those of many radioactive waste sites. These data support the prospective use of engineered D. radiodurans for bioremediation of mixed wastes containing both radionuclides and organic solvents.

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Author notes

  1. Michael J. Daly: Corresponding author (e-mail:mdaly@usuhs.mil).

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Biological Process Technology Institute and Center for Biodegradation Research and Informatics, Gortner Laboratory, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108

    Cleston C. Lange & Lawrence P. Wackett

  2. Department of Pathology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, 20814

    Kenneth W. Minton & Michael J. Daly

Authors
  1. Cleston C. Lange
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  2. Lawrence P. Wackett
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  3. Kenneth W. Minton
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  4. Michael J. Daly
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Lange, C., Wackett, L., Minton, K. et al. Engineering a recombinant Deinococcus radiodurans for organopollutant degradation in radioactive mixed waste environments. Nat Biotechnol 16, 929–933 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1098-929

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