Objective The monitoring of the organic pollutants and the risk assessments in the Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukraine, will be studied on the territory of industrial enterprise "Dneproshina" producing automotive tires as well on encircled area. The data obtained will result both in identification of the toxic compounds present in the studying material (industrial effluents and regions of the relevant industrial influence) and in ranking of these pollutants according to their danger from the ecological and population health points of view. Such data will also lead to estimation of the environmental impact of the pollutants discarded by industrial companies in the natural resources (Dnieper river and its basin, Black Sea). These analytical-ecological investigations will result in setting of the priorities for the development and application of the specific biotechnological methods for depolluting of the detected contaminants.In parallel, probes of the industrial effluents (both liquid and solid) will be analyzed on the presence of microorganisms capable to remediate of the found contaminants. Such microorganisms will be isolated, multiplied and then will be used for studies of optimal conditions for detoxificaton and mineralization of the detected pollutants. To perform the molecular assessment of in situ biodegradative capacity of the strains present in the effluents, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) techniques to measure the presence and expression of genes involved in the degradation of organic pollutants will be applied.The research plan foresees a sequencing and identification of novel genes encoding oxygenase enzymes involved in the degradation of aromatic pollutants as well as the application of forced evolution techniques to the generation of oxygenase enzymes with enhanced bioremediation capabilities. The selected genes will be integrated into the genomes of the parental or other appropriate recipient strains and genetically stable recombinants will be selected. These strains will be used for the analysis of depletion of xenobiotics under laboratory and simulated "on-site" conditions. Their performance will be compared with that of the parental strains.To produce microorganism strains capable to biotransform the wide range of the pollutants two approaches will be used: microorganisms possessing polyfunctional ability to transform specific organic substances will be generated using both chromosomal integration and natural plasmid transfer; the microorganism consortia will be elaborated. The remediation efficiency of the obtained systems will be assessed. As the proposed research foresees the use of recombinant DNA technique, the special consideration will be given to biological safety studies. In this respect, the studies on possible gene transfer and plasmids'/integrated genes' stability are also planned.Together with microbiological and genetic work, investigations of the relevant biodegradation processes on the molecular level to determine pathways of microbial metabolism will be performed. To accomplish this task, the detailed investigation of the catalytic mechanisms of the transformations occurring in microorganisms, and studies of structure-function relationships of the enzymes involved will be undertaken. Therefore, it is planned to isolate and purify the relevant monooxygenases and dioxygenases, which are the key enzymes in aerobic biotransformation of almost all organic pollutants. The appropriate spectroscopic methodology to follow substrate biotransformation in vivo is planned to be elaborated.The treatment of the industrial wastes by the selected microorganisms will finally yield a non-toxic compound(s), which can be further profitably used (either as a final product or as precursors for subsequent synthesis). Therefore, the assessment of this approach, combining both scientific and socio-economic aspects will be performed.The final and one of the most important task of this project is application of the bioremediation techniques developed by the project participants for removal of organic contaminants in situ. On the basis of the results obtained within the project, the most appropriate microorganism consortia for the specific type of pollutants will be selected and will be applied. The analytical monitoring will evidence the efficiency of the applied biotechnological techniques performed after application of the selective microorganisms. Positive output of such monitoring will be a green light for application of such techniques in situ, for decontamination of wastes of the participating in the project industry. Programme(s) IC-INTAS - International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the independent states of the former Soviet Union (INTAS), 1993- Topic(s) 4 - Life Sciences POLL - POLL : Polluted Environment Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme Data not available Coordinator Technische Universität Braunschweig EU contribution No data Address Spielmannstrasse 7 38106 Braunschweig Germany See on map Total cost No data Participants (4) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all CNR-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Italy EU contribution No data Address Spianata San Raineri, 86 98122 Messina See on map Total cost No data Institute for Genetics of Microorganisms Russia EU contribution No data Address Dorozhny proezd, 1 113545 Moscow See on map Total cost No data Institute of Nature Management Problems and Ecology Ukraine EU contribution No data Address 6 Moskovskaya Street 49000 Dnepropetrovsk See on map Total cost No data National Scientific Centre for Medical and Biotechnical Research Ukraine EU contribution No data Address 54 Volodymyrska Street 01030 Kiev See on map Total cost No data
