Hydra bioassay for the evaluation of chlordecone toxicity at environmental concentrations, alone or in complex mixtures with dechlorinated byproducts: experimental observations and modeling by experimental design.

In chlordecone (CLD)-contaminated soils of the French West Indies, if microbial remediation or a physicochemical remediation process, e.g., in situ chemical reduction, is implemented, concentrations of degradation byproducts, such as hydrochlordecones, are expected to increase in the ecosystems.

Strategy to identify the causes and to solve a sludge granulation problem in methanogenic reactors: application to a full-scale plant treating cheese wastewater.

Granulation of biomass is at the basis of the operation of the most successful anaerobic systems (UASB, EGSB and IC reactors) applied worldwide for wastewater treatment. Despite of decades of studies of the biomass granulation process, it is still not fully understood and controlled. "Degranulation/lack of granulation" is a problem that occurs sometimes in anaerobic systems resulting often in heavy loss of biomass and poor treatment efficiencies or even complete reactor failure.

Transfer of Pseudomonas pictorum Gray and Thornton 1928 to genus Stenotrophomonas as Stenotrophomonas pictorum comb. nov., and emended description of the genus Stenotrophomonas.

A polyphasic taxonomic approach including analysis of phenotypic, physiological and genotypic characteristics, 16S rRNA gene sequence and DNA-DNA hybridization analysis was used to determine the most consistent affiliation of Pseudomonas pictorum. Pseudomonas pictorum ATCC 23328T exhibited phenotypic traits of members of the genus Stenotrophomonas including cellular fatty acid composition, quinone and limited range of substrates that could be used. Antibiotic susceptibility and physiological characteristics were determined.

Natural transformation of chlordecone into 5b-hydrochlordecone in French West Indies soils: statistical evidence for investigating long-term persistence of organic pollutants.

Chlordecone (CLD) was an organochlorine insecticide whose previous use resulted in an extensive pollution of the environment with severe health effects and social consequences. A closely related compound, 5b-hydrochlordecone (5b-hydroCLD), has been searched for and often detected in environmental matrices from the geographical area where CLD was applied. The current consensus considered that its presence was not the result of a biotic or abiotic dechlorination of CLD in these matrices but rather the consequence of its presence as impurity (synthesis by-product) in the CLD released into the environment.

Chlordecone retention in the fractal structure of volcanic clay.

Chlordecone (CHLD), a soil and foodstuff pollutant, as well as an environmentally persistent organochlorine insecticide, was used intensively in banana fields. The chlordecone uptake of three crops was measured for two types of polluted soils: allophanic and non-allophanic. The uptake is lower for allophanic soils even if their chlordecone content is higher than with non-allophanic soils.

Gibbs free energy of formation of chlordecone and potential degradation products: implications for remediation strategies and environmental fate.

Chlordecone (C(10)Cl(10)O; CAS number 143-50-0) has been used extensively as an organochlorine insecticide but is nowadays banned under The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). A search for chlordecone-respiring organisms and choosing between reductive versus oxidative remediation tools and strategies to clean up chlordecone-polluted environments would benefit from the availability of Gibbs free energy data of chlordecone and its potential dechlorination products. Presently such data are not available.

Multiple syntrophic interactions in a terephthalate-degrading methanogenic consortium.

Terephthalate (TA) is one of the top 50 chemicals produced worldwide. Its production results in a TA-containing wastewater that is treated by anaerobic processes through a poorly understood methanogenic syntrophy. Using metagenomics, we characterized the methanogenic consortium inside a hyper-mesophilic (that is, between mesophilic and thermophilic), TA-degrading bioreactor.

Pseudoxanthomonas mexicana sp. nov. and Pseudoxanthomonas japonensis sp. nov., isolated from diverse environments, and emended descriptions of the genus Pseudoxanthomonas Finkmann et al. 2000 and of its type species.

Three mesophilic bacteria (strains AMX 26B(T), UR374_02 and 12-3(T)) isolated respectively from an anaerobic digester, human urine and urban riverside soil were characterized. Cells were Gram-negative, motile, non-sporulating, straight to curved rods with one polar flagellum and had a strictly respiratory metabolism with O(2) as the preferential terminal electron acceptor. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that all strains clustered within the Xanthomonadaceae branch of the Proteobacteria.

Microbial community structure in a thermophilic anaerobic hybrid reactor degrading terephthalate.

A thermophilic terephthalate-degrading methanogenic consortium was successfully enriched for 272 days in an anaerobic hybrid reactor, and the microbial structure was characterized using terminal RFLPs, clone libraries and fluorescence in-situ hybridization with rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes. All the results suggested that Methanothrix thermophila-related methanogens, Desulfotomaculum-related bacterial populations in the Gram-positive low-G + C group, and OP5-related populations were the key members responsible for terephthalate degradation under thermophilic methanogenic conditions except during periods when the reactor experienced heat shock and pump failure. These perturbations caused a significant shift in bacterial population structure in sludge samples taken from the sludge bed but not from the surface of the packing materials.

Bosea minatitlanensis sp. nov., a strictly aerobic bacterium isolated from an anaerobic digester.

A strictly aerobic, mesophilic bacterium, strain AMX 51(T), was isolated from anaerobic digester sludge. Cells were Gram-negative, motile, non-sporulating, straight to curved rods with one polar flagellum. The isolate had phenotypic traits of the genus Bosea, including cellular fatty acid and substrate utilization profiles.

Clostridium thiosulfatireducens sp. nov., a proteolytic, thiosulfate- and sulfur-reducing bacterium isolated from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor.

A strictly anaerobic, gram-positive, sporulating rod (0.5-0.6 x 2.

Sporanaerobacter acetigenes gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel acetogenic, facultatively sulfur-reducing bacterium.

A strictly anaerobic, moderately thermophilic, sporulating rod, designated strain Lup 33T, was isolated from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor in Mexico. Strain Lup 33T possessed a few laterally inserted flagella, had a DNA G+C content of 32.2 mol % and grew optimally at pH 7.

Stenotrophomonas acidaminiphila sp. nov., a strictly aerobic bacterium isolated from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor.

Two of several strictly aerobic, mesophilic bacteria isolated from a lab-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating a petrochemical wastewater, strains AMX 17 and AMX 19T, were subjected to detailed taxonomic study. Cells were gram-negative, motile, non-sporulating, straight to curved rods with a polar flagellum. The isolates exhibited phenotypic traits of members of the genus Stenotrophomonas, including cellular fatty acid composition and the limited range of substrates that could be used.