User:Joey711/Sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dehalococcoides is a genus of bacteria within the class Dehalococcoidetes that conserve metabolic energy by coupling the oxidation of hydrogen gas (H2) with the reduction of halogenated organic compounds through a process known as reductive dehalogenation.[1] It should be noted that a formal description of the candidate genus Dehalococcoides has not been published in the taxonomic literature to date, and that Dehalococcoides is currently absent from the List of Bacterial names with Standing in Nomenclature. The first Dehalococcoides enrichment was performed in the year 1995 (REF), and the first isolate, Dehalococcoides ethenogenes strain 195, was described in 1997 (REF). Strain 195 gained notoriety as the first known organism capable of complete reduction of the dry-cleaning solvent, tetrachloroethene, also referred to as PCE [2][3]. This finding is especially important to the field of bioremediation and environmental protection because PCE and other chloroethenes comprise the most common groundwater contaminants in the United States of America ((REF)). They are similarly ubiquitous throughout the developed world ((REF)). The complete reduction of PCE to ethene by Dehalococcoides occurs in a step-wise manner.
Dehalococcoides | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | |
Phylum: | |
Class: | |
Genus: | Dehalococcoides Maymo-Gatell et al. 1997 |
Species | |
|
Although there are other dechlorinating microbesresponsible for the environmental catalysis of PCE → TCE → 1,2-Dichloroethene (1,2-DCE), only Dehalococcoides are known to continue the degradation sequence from 1,2-DCE to vinyl chloride (VC), and finally, ethene (1,2-DCE → VC → ethene), which is environmentally benign. The presence of Dehalococcoides in groundwater may be necessary for proper bioremediation of contaminated sites. In addition to chloroethenes, members of Dehalococcoides are now known to be capable of the reductive dehalogenation of other priority pollutants, including polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, chlorobenzenes, chlorophenols, chloroethanes, etc. ((REFs))