Genetic system of organohalide-respiring bacteria

Abstract

Organohalide-respiring bacteria (OHRB) utilize halogenated organic compounds as terminal electron acceptors and are considered to be significantly important from both viewpoints of bioremediation and natural halogen cycle. Growth-linked bioremediation using OHRB has been successfully applied to removal of chlorinated solvents, e.g., tetrachloroethene is successively converted to trichloroethene, dichloroethenes, vinyl chloride, and nontoxic ethene. From OHRB, versatile reductive dehalogenases (RDases), which catalyze the reductive dehalogenation reaction, were purified and their corresponding genes have been identified. In this chapter, we present an overview of current understanding of organohalide respiration, showing the RDase genes and their associated genes are highly conserved in phylogenetically diverse OHRB.