ISOLATION OF PHENOXY HERBICIDE-DEGRADING RHODOFERAX SPECIES FROM CONTAMINATED BUILDING MATERIAL

Bacterial strains have been isolated from contaminated concrete debris which exhibit the metabolic capability to degrade 2,4-chlorinated and 4-chloro-2-methyl-substituted phenols and phenoxyalkanoic acids inclu ding phenoxyacetate and phenoxypropionate derivatives. These strains w ere taxonomically identified. Two of them were found to belong to the beta-subgroup of the proteobacteria and showed strong similarity to Rh odoferax fermentans. Preliminary investigations by PCR amplification u sing respective primers revealed that the strains harbour tfdA-like ge ne sequences.