Objective
Among halogenated methanes there are significant industrial chemicals, pesticides and naturally occurring compounds. They are environmentally important not only because of their toxicity and/or carcinogenicity, but also because of their role in the destruction of the ozone layer. A collaborative study on the microbial degradation of the naturally occurring compounds chloromethane and bromomethane and of the industrial solvent dichloromethane will be carried out. These compounds are known to serve as carbon sources for aerobic methyltrophic bacteria. The occurrence of bacteria utilising halogenated methanes in the environment will be investigated as well as the biochemistry and the genetics of the dehalogenative enzymes, the key catalysts responsible for the degradation of halomethanes.
The research will focus on the enrichment and isolation of CH3Cl and CH2Cl2-degrading bacteria. The bacterieal isolates will be characterized physilogicaly. An in vitro assay for CH3Cl dehalogenase will be developed, and the CH3Cl dehalogenase will be purified and characterized. CH2Cl2 dehalogenase will be characterized from novel bacteria isolates. Taxonomic charaterisation of the selected methylotropic isolates and site-directed mutagenesis and experimental evolution of CH2Cl2 dehalogenase will be done. A nucleotide sequence of CH2Cl2 dehalogenase strucural genes from novel isolates will be established.
Topic(s)
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8092 Zürich
Switzerland