Characteristics of Arthrobacter sp. W1 for phenol biodegradation and acquisition of phenol hydroxylase gene

To obtain novel salt-tolerant phenol-degrading bacteria and amplify the corresponding genes,a bacterium named W1 was isolated from the active sludge samples.16S rRNA sequence analysis was used to identify the bacterium,and characteristics for phenol biodegradation were also studied.The 5'-and 3'-flanking regions of gene encoding the phenol hydroxylase were amplified from strain W1 by TAIL-PCR method.1wt%-10wt% was showed that strain W1 was identified as Arthrobacter sp.The strain was capable of growing in the medium with 1wt%-10wt% NaCl and utilizing phenol as the sole carbon and energy source.And it could also degrade some other aromatic compounds such as p-methylphenol,salicylic acid and p-hydroquinone,etc.When concentration of NaCl was about 5wt%,1 000 mg·L-1 phenol could be degraded more than 90% by strain W1.The complete gene cluster was about 6 kb,of which the gene encoding the large subunit of phenol hydroxylase exhibited the highest similarity about 93% with the corresponding gene of Alcaligenes sp.