Microbial Transformation of Phthalate Esters: Diversity of Hydrolytic Esterases - Environmental Contamination: Health Risks and Ecological Restoration - page 328

which. was. meta -cleavaged. in. the. following. process.. Acinetobacter lwofii .
isolated. from. Tempaku. River. was. investigated. by. Hashizume. et. al.. (2002)..
They.reported.that.this.strain.was.able.to.degrade.DBP.at.an.initial.concen-
tration.of.20.μg/mL.
Micrococcus . sp.. from. soil. mineralized. DEP. quickly,. when. the. DEP. was.
used.as.the.sole.carbon.and.energy.source.(Karegoudar.and.Pujar.1984);.0.2%.
of.substrate.DEP.was.mineralized.in.only.2.days,.with.the.bacterial.growth.
reaching. up. to. OD. 1.85. at. the. same. time.. DEPs. were. also. found. degraded.
in.soil.samples.containing.bacteria.of. Aureobacterium saperdae ,. Flavobacterium
aquatile ,.and. Micrococcus keristinae .(Jackson.et.al..1996).
Several. bacteria. were. identiied. while. hydrolyzing. diethyl. terephthalate.
(DETP).and.included.13.strains.of. Rhodococcus rhodochrous .and.1. Xanthomonas
maltophila .(Jackson.et.al..1996)..However,.the.DETP.was.only.hydrolyzed.to.
monoester,.without.further.utilization.by.bacteria.
In.the.case.of.DMP,.the.simplest.form.of.phthalate.esters,.there.are.a.num-
ber. of. studies. describing. various. microorganisms. utilizing. this. chemi-
cal,. including. bacteria,. fungi,. and. algae.. Both. Pseudomonas luorescens . and.
Pseudomonas testosteroni . can. use. DMP. as. a. sole. carbon. and. energy. source,.
with.distinct.benzene.ring.cleavage.pathway.(Keyser.et.al..1976)..Eaton.and.
Ribbons.(1982).described.that. Micrococcus .sp..strain.12B.can.mineralize.DMP.
with. a.main.pathway.and.a.minor. pathway.. Another.Gram-positive.bacte-
rium,. Bacillus .sp.,.was.also.found.to.degrade.DMP.when.DMP.is.used.as.a.
sole.carbon.and.energy.source.(Niazi.et.al..2001).. P. luorescences .was.used.to.
degrade.several.different.PAEs,.including.DMP.(Zeng.et.al..2004)..Other.than.
bacteria,. the. fungi. and. algae. presented. their. capability. to. hydrolyze. DMP..
Green.alga. Dunaliella tertiolecta .hydrolyzed.DMP.to.the.product.PA.with.the.
maximum.tolerance.level.reaching.up.to.300.mg/L.concentration.(Yan.and.
Liu. 1998).. No. further. degradation. of. phthalic. acid. was. mentioned. in. this.
report..Another.study.reported.that. Aspergillus niger ,.one.of.the.fungal.spe-
cies,. can. also. metabolize. DMP. (Sharanagouda. and. Karegoudar. 2000).. The.
aromatic. intermediates. of. monomethyl. phthalate,. phthalate,. and. protocat-
echuate.were.yielded.by.the.strain,.followed.by. ortho -cleavage.process.
For. DMIP,. P. testosteroni . was. described. as. having. the. ability. to. miner-
alize. (Keyser. et. al.. 1976).. DMIP. was. transformed. to. isophthalate. by. this.
strain,. followed. by. the. intermediate. protocatechuate.. Before. the. forma-
tion. of. protocatechuate,. one. possible. intermediate. was. speculated. to. be.
4-hydroxyisophthalate,.which.is.produced.by.isophthalic.acid.grown.cells..
In. another. report,. Rhodococcus ruber . 1B. and. R. erythropolis . 5D. completely.
degraded.DMIP.at.0.2%.concentration.in.168.h.(Aleshchenkova.et.al..1997).
P. testosteroni .was.found.to. be.able.to.degrade.all.the.three.PAE.isomers..
The.strain.transformed.DMTP.to.protocatechuate,.but.the.process.of.trans-
formation. from. terephthalic. acid. to. protocatechuate. was. not. mentioned. in.
the. report. (Keyser. et. al.. 1976).. The. bacterium. Comamonas acidovorans . was.
described.in.the.article.(Patel.et.al..1998)..About.0.5%.(w/v).concentration.of.
DMTP.was.mineralized.by.this.strain.in.72.h.(Patel.et.al..1998).. C. acidovorans .