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Microbial Biodegradation of 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic Acid and Chlorophenols

  • Chapter
Genetic Control of Environmental Pollutants

Part of the book series: Basic Life Sciences ((BLSC,volume 28))

Abstract

Maintaining the carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur balances in the environment is one of the main tasks of microorganisms in nature; microorganisms degrade most compounds so that their basic elements can be recycled. However, naturally occurring chlorinated hydrocarbons are rather rare (25). Chlorinated synthetic chemicals such as PCBs, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane (DDT), and 2,4,5-T, generally are degraded only slowly (20,23,24), mostly through co-oxida-tive metabolism (1,23), The persistence of these compounds is thought to be due to a lack of the ability of microbial cells to derive their energy and cellular constituents from the oxidative metabolism of these compounds (1), Persistence of chemicals in nature will amplify our pollution problems as time progresses, so that even what seems like an insignificant amount of a given chemical, if applied repeatedly, will accumulate until its environmental impact is felt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Health Sciences Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60612, USA

    J. S. Karns, J. J. Kilbane, D. K. Chatterjee & A. M. Chakrabarty

Authors
  1. J. S. Karns
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  2. J. J. Kilbane
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  3. D. K. Chatterjee
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  4. A. M. Chakrabarty
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Gilbert S. Omenn

  2. Associated Universities, Inc., Washington, D.C., USA

    Alexander Hollaender

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© 1984 Plenum Press, New York

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Karns, J.S., Kilbane, J.J., Chatterjee, D.K., Chakrabarty, A.M. (1984). Microbial Biodegradation of 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic Acid and Chlorophenols. In: Omenn, G.S., et al. Genetic Control of Environmental Pollutants. Basic Life Sciences, vol 28. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4715-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4715-6_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4717-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4715-6

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