Linking Toluene Degradation with Specific Microbial Populations in Soil

Author

1. Jessica R. Hanson1, 
2. Jennifer L. Macalady1, 
3. David Harris2, and 
4. Kate M. Scow1,^*

-Author Affiliations

1. Department of Land, Air and Water Resources1 and 
2. Stable Isotope Facility,2 University of California, Davis, California 95616

ABSTRACT

Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis of a soil microbial community was coupled with ¹³C isotope tracer analysis to measure the community’s response to addition of 35 μg of [¹³C]toluene ml of soil solution⁻¹. After 119 h of incubation with toluene, 96% of the incorporated¹³C was detected in only 16 of the total 59 PLFAs (27%) extracted from the soil. Of the total ¹³C-enriched PLFAs, 85% were identical to the PLFAs contained in a toluene-metabolizing bacterium isolated from the same soil. In contrast, the majority of the soil PLFAs (91%) became labeled when the same soil was incubated with [¹³C]glucose. Our study showed that coupling¹³C tracer analysis with PLFA analysis is an effective technique for distinguishing a specific microbial population involved in metabolism of a labeled substrate in complex environments such as soil.

FOOTNOTES

• Received 12 May 1999.
• Accepted 27 September 1999.
• ↵* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, 1 Shields Ave., University of California, Davis, CA 95616. Phone: (530) 752-4632. Fax: (530) 752-1552. E-mail: kmscow@ucdavis.edu.

• Copyright © 1999 American Society for Microbiology

For further details log on website :
http://aem.asm.org/content/65/12/5403.abstract