NSF Award
9160198
The pollution control field is in need of an efficient, cost- effective in situ treatment process to remediate aquifers contaminated with chlorinated aliphatic compounds such as trichloroethylene (TCE). Successful in situ treatment of saturated zone soils and liquid requires the presence of metabolically capable bacteria in the polluted target zone. In many cases, metabolically desirable microorganisms may not be present in the contaminated zone, or may be unevenly distributed throughout the subsurface. TCE is a common ground water contaminant that is very efficiently degraded by the aerobic methanotroph Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b. However, M. trichosporium, like most soil isolates, has natural adhesive properties which cause them to bind to soil surfaces, thus limiting their accessibility to the contaminant. We are generating an adhesion deficient mutant of OB3b capable of moving through an aquifer while actively degrading TCE and related toxic substances. An organism with this capability would serve as the basis for a cost-effective in situ treatment technology, or provide synergistic benefits when combined with current pump-and-treat methods of purifying aquifers.
