Abstract
Abstract The present study investigated fluorene biodegradation by Sphingobacterium sp. KM-02 in the presence of heavy metals. A fluorene-degrading strain of Sphingobacterium was isolated from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-contaminated soil near a mine-impacted area in Korea. When Sphingobacterium sp. KM-02 was grown in a medium with fluorene as the sole carbon source, it removed 78.4% of this compound within 120 h. Identification of the metabolic intermediates (9-fluorenone, 4-hydroxy-9-fluorenone, and 8-hydroxy-3,4-benzocoumarin) were also performed. Composting experiments under laboratory conditions indicated that this microbe also removed fluorene from contaminated soil. In particular, treatment of microcosm soil with strain KM-02 for 20 days resulted in a 65.6% reduction of fluorene concentration. Experiments of effects of heavy metals on fluorene removal by strain KM-02 showed that 10 mg/L cadmium, copper, zinc, and lead, reduced growth and fluorene degradation by this microbe. Cadmium and copper ...
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