• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1458-1469
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• 2015

Many organic solvent-tolerant bacteria have been isolated from all environments such as soil, waste-water, even deep sea after first isolation report of organic solvent-tolerant bacterium. Most organic solvent- tolerant isolates have been determined to be Gram-negative bacteria, because Gram-negative bacteria have inherent tolerance property toward hostile organic solvents more than Gram-positive bacteria. The mechanisms of organic solvent tolerance have been elucidated extensively using mainly organic solvent-tolerant Gram-negative bacteria. The solvent-tolerance mechanisms in Gram-positive bacteria can be found in comparatively recent research. Organic solvents exhibited different toxicity depending on the solvent, and the tolerance levels of organic solvent-tolerant bacteria toward organic solvents were also highly changeable among species and strains. Therefore, organic solvent-tolerant bacteria could coped with solvent toxicity and adapted to solvent stress through the multifactorial and multigenic adaptative strategies. They could be survived even in the hyper concentrations of organic solvents by mechanisms which include: changes in cell morphology and cell behaviour, cell surface modifications, cell membrane adaptations, solvent excretion pumps, chaperones and anti-oxidative response. The aim of this work is to review the representative solvent tolerant bacteria and the adaptative and tolerance strategies toward organic solvents in organic solvent-tolerant bacteria, and their potential industrial and environmental impact.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2012

In the screening process of organic solvent tolerant bacteria showing good growth in media containing several kinds of organic solvents, one strain was isolated and identified as Bacillus sp. BCNU 5006. The strain was able to tolerate many organic solvents including benzene, toluene, xylene, octane, dodecane, butanol and ethylbenzene. Likewise, it could also utilize these solvents as the sole source of carbon with significant enzyme production. The lipolytic enzyme stability of Bacillus sp. BCNU 5006 was studied in the presence of several kinds of solvents at a 25% (v/v) concentration. The highest enzyme stability was observed in the presence of octane (107%), followed by ethylbenzene (88%), decane (86%), and chloroform (85%). Especially, BCNU 5006 lipase was determined to be more stable than immobilized enzyme (Novozyme 435) in the presence of octane, chloroform and xylene. This organic solvent tolerant Bacillus sp. BCNU 5006 could be expected as a potential bioremediation agent and biocatalyst for biodegradation and provide on organic-solvent-based enzymatic synthetic method in industrial chemical processes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.700-705
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• 2011

Using enrichment procedures, we isolated organic solvent-tolerant Bacillus sp. BCNU 5005 from waste water and soil in the Ulsan industrial plant region. BCNU 5005 had a maximum similarity of 98% with B. subtilis and was designated as B. subtilis based on phylogenetic analyses using 16S rDNA sequences. Generally, most bacteria and their enzymes are destroyed or inactivated in the presence of high concentrations of organic solvents. However, the lipase activity of B. subtilis BCNU 5005 was very stable in the presence of various kinds of solvents (25%, v/v) except chloroform, ethylbenzene and decane. Furthermore, BCNU 5005 was determined to have a degradative ability towards organic solvents. This organic solvent tolerant Bacillus sp. BCNU 5005 could be used as a new potential resource for biotransformation and bioremediation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1381-1392
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• 2017

This review described solvent-tolerant lipases and their potential industrial, biotechnological and environmental impacts. Although organic solvent-tolerant lipase was first reported in organic solvent-tolerant bacterium, many organic solvent-tolerant lipases are in not only solvent-tolerant bacteria but also solvent-intolerant bacterial and fungal strains, such as the well-known Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Streptomyces and Aspergillus strains. As these lipases are not easily inactivated in organic solvents, there is no need to immobilize them in order to prevent an enzyme inactivation by solvents. Therefore, the solvent-tolerant lipases have the potential to be used in many biotechnological and biotransformation processes. With the solvent-tolerant lipases, a large number insoluble substrates become soluble, various chemical reactions that are initially impossible in water systems become practical, synthesis reactions (instead of hydrolysis) are possible, side reactions caused by water are suppressed, and the possibility of chemoselective, regioselective and enantioselective transformations in solvent and non-aqueous systems is increased. Furthermore, the recovery and reuse of enzymes is possible without immobilization, and the stabilities of the lipases improve in solvent and non-aqueous systems. Therefore, lipases with organic-solvent tolerances have attracted much attention in regards to applying them as biocatalysts to biotransformation processes using solvent and non-aqueous systems.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.386-389
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• 2003

Organic solvent tolerance bacteria, Pseudomonas savastanoi BCNU 106 could utilize a high contentration of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene isomers (BTEX) as a sole carbon source. It was founded that strain BCNU 106 transformed o-xylene to 2-methylbenzyl alcohol, 2-methylbenzoic acid through direct oxygenation of methyl residue on GC-MS analysis.