Premi a l'excel·lència investigadora. Àmbit de les Ciències Tecnològiques. 2008

Perchloroethylene (PCE) is one of the most important groundwater pollutants around the world. It is a suspected carcinogen and is believed to be rather recalcitrant to microbial degradation. We report here, for the first time, aerobic degradation of PCE by the white rot fungus, Trametes versicolor, to less hazardous products. Aerobic degradation rate of PCE was 2.04 to 2.75 × 10-4 μmol h-1 mg dry weight of fungal biomass. Trichloroacetyl chloride (TCAC) was identified as the main intermediate using [2-13C]PCE as the substrate. Chloride release was stoichiometric with PCE degradation. Re-oxygenation of the cultures resulted in increased PCE degradation as well as a corresponding increase in chloride release. These results suggest that better degradation rates can be achieved by appropriate optimization of culture conditions. Additionally, our studies using 1-aminobenzotriazole (ABT), an inhibitor of cytochrome P-450, suggested that cytochrome P-450 system is involved in PCE degradation by T. versicolor. These results are of particular interest