Abstract
Summary Enrichment cultures capable of reductively dechlorinating 1,2,4‐trichlorodibenzo‐ p ‐dioxin (1,2,4‐TrCDD) were shown to dechlorinate 1,2,3‐trichlorobenzene (1,2,3‐TrCB) to 1,3‐dichlorobenzene. To test if this activity can be used to enrich for dioxin‐dechlorinating bacteria, a two‐liquid phase cultivation with 200 mM 1,2,3‐TrCB dissolved in hexadecane was established. During the dechlorination of 1,2,3‐TrCB, the number of 1,2,4‐TrCDD‐dechlorinating bacteria increased by four orders of magnitude, eventually accounting for 11% of the total cell number. Characterization of the bacterial communities of the initial dioxin‐dechlorinating culture and of the trichlorobenzene enrichments by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of cloned 16S rRNA genes revealed a proportional increase of nine different sequence types, one representing a Dehalococcoides strain. Inhibition of methanogens further enhanced the rate of chlorobenzene dehalogenation and also resulted in a rapid dechlorination of 1,2,3,4‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐ p ‐dioxin that was applied via a hexadecane phase . The further enrichment was monitored by terminal RFLP, quantitative real‐time PCR and microscopy, and aimed at the reduction of the accompanying non‐dehalogenating populations by using different combinations of electron donors and the application of antibiotics. Hydrogen as the sole electron donor proved to be less efficient due to the co‐enrichment of acetogens. The novel Dehalococcoides strain DCMB5 was enriched up to 50% by the cultivation with organic acids, hydrogen and vancomycin, and was finally purified by conventional isolation techniques.