Cometabolism in the Biodegradation of Benzene, Toluene, and ${\rho}-xylene$ Mixture by Isolated Pseudomonas fluorescence BE103

A microorganism showing degradative activity towards benzene, toluene and ${\rho}-xylene$ (BTX) was isolated from an activated sewage sludge and was tentatively identified as Pseudomonas fluorescence BE103. This strain was found to utilize benzene and toluene as growth substrates, but to degrade ${\rho}-xylene$ in the obligate presence of a growth substrate. The metabolic product resulted from the cometabolism of ${\rho}-xylene$ was identified as 3, 6-dimethylpyrocatechol by LC/MS analysis, and the metabolic pathway was analyzed to be similar to the tod pathway. From the kinetic studies done regarding BTX biodegradation using Pseudomonas fluorescence BE103, it was revealed that the cometabolism of ${\rho}-xylene$ is significantly affected by the ratio of growth substrate concentration to biomass concentration, and that the cometabolism of ${\rho}-xylene$ initiates only when this ratio was about 0.03.