investigation, owing to their high toxicity to humans and
wildlife. Toxicity equivalency factors (TEFs) indicate an order
of magnitude estimate of the toxicity of the 2,3,7,8-substituted
PCDD/F congeners and other dioxin-like compounds, including certain co-planar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
(13). TEF values are assigned relative to that of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TeCDD), the PCDD/F
congener considered the most toxic of these compounds
(13). A toxic equivalent (TEQ) expressed as equivalents of
2,3,7,8-TeCDD can be computed for mixtures of 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD/F congeners by summing the products of
individual concentrations multiplied by their respective TEFs.
TEFs are intended to predict the relative toxicity of congeners
in animal tissues or their diets. TEFs are also widely used to
quantify TEQs for dioxin-like compounds in environmental
media, e.g., sediment. Summing converted TEQs of individual
congeners to a single total TEQ value is useful for comparing
contaminated sediments and prioritizing remedial efforts.
Biotransformation of PCDD/Fs occurs under both aerobic
and anaerobic conditions (15–21). Lightly chlorinated PCDD/
Fs may be biotransformed or mineralized under aerobic
conditions (15, 21), while highly chlorinated PCDD/Fs
undergo reductive dechlorination under anaerobic conditions (16–20, 22, 23). Recently, two bacterial strains have
been identified, which dechlorinate PCDD/Fs under anaerobic conditions:Dehalococcoidessp. strain CBDB1 (22) and
Dehalococcoides ethenogenesstrain 195 (23).
D. ethenogenesstrain 195 dechlorinates tetrachloroethene
(PCE) to vinyl chloride (VC) and ethene. It grows on PCE,
trichloroethene (TCE),cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cis-1,2-DCE),
1,1-DCE (24, 25), selected chlorinated benzenes (23), and
chlorophenols (26). Strain 195 debrominated commercial
octa-brominated diphenyl ether (BDE) (a mixture containing
hexa- through nona-BDE) to a mixture of penta-, hexa-, and
hepta-BDEs (27). In pure culture, strain 195 dechlorinated
2,3,4,5,6-PCB, 1,2,3,4-tetrachloronaphthalene, and 1,2,3,4-tetrachlorodibenzofuran (1,2,3,4-TeCDF). Specifically, it
dechlorinated 1,2,3,4-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (1,2,3,4-TeCDD) to 1,2,4-trichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (1,2,4-TrCDD)
and, subsequently, to 1,3-dichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (1,3-DCDD) (23). Notably, strain 195 did not dechlorinate 2,3,7,8-TeCDD (23). It is not known if the PCBs or PCDD/Fs support
its growth.
For bioremediation of contaminated sediments, not only
is dechlorination desired, but more importantly, detoxification with respect to the PCDD/Fs should be achieved. We
investigated dechlorination of two 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD/F
congeners, 1,2,3,4,7,8-hexachlorodibenzofuran (1,2,3,4,7,8-HxCDF) and 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9-octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
(OCDD), by a mixed culture containingD. ethenogenesstrain
195. 1,2,3,4,7,8-HxCDF has a TEF of 0.1 (13) and is the most
abundant of the hexa-CDFs from anthropogenic sources in
the U.S.A. (28). It is a significant contributor to the total TEQ
in sediments in the New York-New Jersey Harbor (29).
OCDD, with a TEF of 0.0003 (13) has the highest mass
concentration of PCDD/Fs in atmospheric deposition sources
and thus generally in sediments (7, 30). Because both
compounds have fully chlorinated rings similar to the
structures of 1,2,3,4-TeCDD/F, we hypothesized that strain
195 would also dechlorinate these congeners. Dechlorination
of 1,2,3,4-TeCDD byD. ethenogenesstrain 195 was observed
to proceed through a lateral, followed by a peri dechlorination
step. During the dechlorination of 1,2,3,4,7,8-HxCDF or
OCDD, removal of chlorine from one of the 2, 3, 7, or 8
positions would greatly decrease the TEQ of the total PCDD/
Fs. This study examined both the pathway and extent o
đang được dịch, vui lòng đợi..