Abstract
A toluene-oxidizing strain of Pseudomanas mendocina KR1 containing toluene-4-mono-oxygenase (TMO) completely degrades TCE with the addition of toluene as a co-substrate in aerobic condition. In order to construct in situ bioremediation system for TCE degradation without any growth-stimulating nutrients or toxic inducer such as toluene, we used the carbon-starvation promoter of Pseudomonas putida MK1 (Kim, Y. et al., J. bacteriol., 1995). Upon entry into the stationary phase due to the deprivation of nutrients, this promoter is strongly induced without further cell growth. The TMO gene cluster (4.5 kb) was spliced downstream of the carbon starvation promoter of Pseudomonas putida MK1, already cloned in pUC19. TMO under the carbon starvation promoter was not expressed in E. coli cells either in stationary phase or exponential phase. For TMO expression in Pseudomonas strains, tmo and carbon starvation promoter region were recloned into a modified broad-host range vector pMMB67HES which was made from pMMB67HE(8.9 kb) by deletion of tac promoter and lacIq (about 1.5 kb). Indigo was produced by TMO under the carbon starvation promoter in a Pseudomonas strain of post-exponential phase on M9 (0.2% glucose and 1mM indole) or LB. 18% of TCE was degraded in 14 hours after entering the stationary phase at the initial concentration of 6.6 ${\mu}$M in liquid phase.