MICROBIAL TRANSFORMATION OF 2,4,6-TRINITROTOLUENE

The manufacture and decommissioning of explosives has generated, and c ontinues to generate, large quantities of waste material whose primary toxic and mutagenic component is 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). The mag nitude of this problem has motivated a great deal of research into tre atment processes and environmental fate studies, including characteriz ation of microbial transformations of TNT. This work has encompassed s tudies with mixed cultures and pure cultures of microorganisms derived from either TNT-exposed or unexposed sources, and studies using micro organisms chosen for their known capacities to degrade other pollutant s. Several of these studies are discussed with regard to whether they identified a process that may lead to the complete detoxification or m ineralization of TNT. Since oxygen can have a significant influence on the types of biochemical reactions that can occur and on the oxidatio n of intermediates of TNT transformation processes, studies in which o xygen was not excluded are discussed separately from studies conducted under anaerobic conditions.