QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NAPHTHALENE CATABOLIC GENE-FREQUENCY AND EXPRESSION IN PREDICTING PAH DEGRADATION IN SOILS AT TOWN GAS MANUFACTURING SITES
Jt. Fleming et al., QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NAPHTHALENE CATABOLIC GENE-FREQUENCY AND EXPRESSION IN PREDICTING PAH DEGRADATION IN SOILS AT TOWN GAS MANUFACTURING SITES, Environmental science & technology, 27(6), 1993, pp. 1068-1074
The inability to monitor in situ expression of biodegradative genes to
predict rates of pollutant degradation or to evaluate the efficacy of
engineering applications of bioremediation in complex environments su
ch as contaminated soils has limited the routine acceptance of this te
chnology in hazardous waste management. To overcome this limitation, a
n approach has been developed to measure catabolic gene expression in
PAH-contaminated soils. In soils populated with as few as 10(6) naphth
alene degradative bacteria g-1, in situ isolation and quantitation of
mRNA levels was achieved for the NAH7 naphthalene dioxygenase (nahA)ge
ne. NahA transcript levels correlated positively with [C-14]naphthalen
e mineralization rates, soil naphthalene concentration, and nahA gene
frequency.