Objective
The goal of the project is to acquire quantitative information on the competitiveness of xenobiotic degrading bacteria in nature. From these studies, it will be attempted to identify those factors which cause both poor achievement of their degradative potential and genetic and physiological instability under conditions relevant to the natural environment and to artificial environments where the organisms could be used for enhancement of pollution degradation.
2 broad experimental approaches to understanding the problems of biodegradation of aromatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated biphenyls will be combined as follows.
In the conventional and molecular genetics approach, bacterial mutants with major changes in the level of expression of the catabolic enzymes, with different plasmid sizes (ie carrying deletions) and with different numbers of plasmid per cell will be constructed. Additionally, fundamental molecular biological investigations of the catabolic genes of a selected number of strains, newly isolated from the environment during the project, will be carried out.
In the continuous culture analysis of degrading systems approach, for both axenic cultures and consortia, the growth rate advantages and disadvantages of wild type and mutant strains will be quantified using competition experiments in continuous culture.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmolecular biologymolecular genetics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryhydrocarbons
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
LL59 5EY Menai Bridge
United Kingdom