Abstract
Since the sulfur specific cleavage is vital for the organic sulfur removal from fossil fuel, we explored potential bacterial strains of MTCC (Microbial Type Culture Collection) to desulfurize the Dibenzothiophene (DBT) through C-S bond cleavage (4-S pathway). MTCC strains Rhodococcus rhodochrous (3552), Arthrobacter sulfureus (3332), Gordonia rubropertincta (289), and Rhodococcus erythropolis (3951) capable of growing in 0.5 mM DBT were examined for their desulfurization ability. The presence of dsz genes as well as the metabolites was screened by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and HPLC, respectively. All these strains showed > 99% DBT desulfurization with 10 days of incubation in minimal salt medium. From the HPLC analysis it was further revealed that these MTCC strains show differences in the end metabolites and desulfurize DBT differently following a variation in the regular 4-S pathway. These findings are also well corroborating with their respective organization of dszABC operons and their relative abundance. The above MTCC strains are capable of desulfurizing DBT efficiently and hence can be explored for biodesulfurization of petrochemicals and coal with an eco-friendly and energy economical process.
Highlights
Energy is essential to life, and its central source comes from fossil fuels
Based on the in-silico criteria and special biochemical characteristics shown by the Microbial Type Culture Collection (MTCC) strains, around ten microbes from MTCC-IMTECH, Chandigarh (MTCC No 3552, 3951, 3332, 289, 1198, 6640, 2298, 1427, 2422, and 4014) were used for the present investigation
Four different MTCC strains (3552, 3951, 3332, and 289) containing dsz genes were explored for BDS of DBT and the end products were analyzed by HPLC
Summary
Energy is essential to life, and its central source comes from fossil fuels. The elemental fossil fuels used today by most industrialized and developing countries are oil, coal, and natural gas [1, 2]. Not much attention has been paid to explore the differential biodesulfurization of DBT by bacterial strains with reference to the dszABC operon Against this background, the present investigation has been designed to explore novel strains of Microbial Type Culture Collection (MTCC) containing dsz genes for their ability to desulfurize DBT and compare their end metabolites. Keeping these observations in mind we hypothesized that differential availability of free DBT in different sources is contributing for differential behavior of 4S-pathway which is central for the removal of organic sulfur from coal as well as oil without compromising the calorific value To test this hypothesis, different MTCC strains were explored for desulfurization of DBT
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