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Due to widespread accumulation of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in our surroundings, it is important to clarify their fate in the environment and the options of their elimination. The aim of this study was to monitor the biodegradation of the most frequent congeners (BDE 28, 47, 49, 66, 85, 99, 100, 153, 154, 183 and 209) under aerobic condition by indigenous microflora in 2 industrially contaminated sewage sludge samples. BDE 209 was detected as the predominating congener in concentrations 685 ng/g and 1403 ng/g dry weight in sewage sludge from WWTPs (waste water treatment plants) Hradec Kralove and Brno, respectively. The total amount of 10 lower PBDEs was 605 and 205 ng/g dry weight, respectively. The aerobic degradation was significantly enhanced by the addition of yeast extract and 4-bromobiphenyl. The total concentrations of all 11 PBDE congeners were lowered and their elimination was detected reaching 62–78% of their initial amounts after 11 months of cultivation. The degradation of most abundant congener BDE 209 followed the first-order kinetics with constant detected between 2.77 × 10 −3 d −1 and 3.79 × 10 −3 d −1 and the half-lives of BDE 209 degradation ranged between 6.0 and 8.2 months. This work clearly demonstrates that both lower brominated PBDEs as well as the major representative BDE 209 could be successfully removed from municipally contaminated sludge under aerobic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pesticides are a class of xenobiotics intentionally released into the environment. Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) was used as a fungicide from 1945, leaving behind many contaminated sites. Very few studies have examined the biodegradation of HCB or the fate of HCB-derived carbon. Here we report that certain bacterial populations are capable of deriving carbon from HCB in contaminated soil under aerobic conditions. These populations are primarily Proteobacteria, including Methylobacterium and Pseudomonas, which predominated as detected by stable isotope probing (SIP) and 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing. Due to the nature of SIP, which can be used as a functional method solely for assimilatory processes, it is not possible to elucidate whether these populations metabolized directly HCB or intermediates of its metabolism produced by different populations. The possibility exists that HCB is degraded via the formation of pentachlorophenol (PCP), which is further mineralized. With this in mind, we designed primers to amplify PCP 4-monooxygenase-coding sequences based on the available pcpB gene sequence from Methylobacterium radiotolerans JCM 2831. Based on 16S rRNA gene analysis, organisms closely related to this strain were detected in 13C-labeled DNA. Using the designed primers, we were able to amplify pcpB genes in both total community DNA and 13C-DNA. This indicates that HCB might be transformed into PCP before it gets assimilated. In summary, this study is the first report on which bacterial populations benefit from carbon originating in the pesticide HCB in a contaminated soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]