The bacterial transformation of pyrene in an estuary environment, Kiti
mat Arm, British Columbia, Canada, was studied. A metabolite was separ
ated from marine sediment and pore water samples and was id entified a
s cis-4,5-dihydroxy-4,5-dihydropyrene, based on a comparison of the me
tabolite with the authentic standard, by using both high-performance l
iquid chromatography and capillary gas chromatography with mass spectr
ometry detection. The presence of this key metabolite of dioxygenase-m
ediated transformation of pyrene, along with previous pyrene degradati
on studies using cultures isolated from the same sediment samples, sug
gests a possible in situ bacterial transformation of pyrene in the Kit
imat Arm environment.