NSF Award
8961028
The polychlorinated biphenyls are a highly stable family of compounds that have accumulated in the environment over the past 50 years at sites of their production, use, storage, or disposal. Their persistence in soil and sediment and possible effects on human health have sparked an intense interest in developing a safe, economical means for their destruction. It is our goal to use recombinant DNA technologies to develop a superior biochemical process for the microbial destruction of PCBs. Research by Dr. Unterman and his former colleagues at GE has clearly demonstrated the existence of at least two complementary classes of aerobic PCB-degrading bacteria and that use of both of these classes in concert can effect a much greater extent of PCB destruction. It is Envirogen's ultimate goal to combine the PCB- degradative genes from two of these strains, respectively, into one superior, PCB-degradative microbe. The GE group has now cloned the genes from a Class II organism. Although the genes from Class I microbes have been isolated, we will isolate, clone, and genetically engineer the genes that encode the enzymes responsible for PCB catabolism from Acinetobacter strain P6, the best Class I microorganism isolated to date.
