Chlorophenol production by anaerobic microorganisms: Transformation of a biogenic chlorinated hydroquinone metabolite

Chlorinated hydroquinones of biological origin are fully dechlorinated to 1,4-dihydroquinone by anaerobic bacteria such as Desulfitobacterium spp. (C. E. Milliken, G. P. Meier, J. E. M. Watts, K. R. Sowers, and H. D. May, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70:385-392, 2004). In the present study, mixed microbial communities from Baltimore Harbor sediment and a pure culture of Desulfitobacterium sp. strain PCE1 were discovered to demethylate, reductively dehydroxylate, and dechlorinate chlorinated hydroquinones into chlorophenols. Mixed microbial cultures from a freshwater source and several other desulfitobacteria in pure culture did not perform these reactions. Desulfitobacterium sp. strain PCE1 degraded 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-4-methoxyphenol, a metabolite of basidiomycete fungi, to 2,3,5,6-tetrachlorophenol and 2,3,5-trichlorophenol, recalcitrant compounds that are primarily synthesized anthropogenically.