Microbial consortia that degrade 2,4-DNT by interspecies metabolism: isolation and characterisation.

Two consortia, isolated by selective enrichment from a soil sample of a nitroaromatic-contaminated site, degraded 2,4-DNT as their sole nitrogen source without accumulating one or more detectable intermediates. Though originating from the same sample, the optimised consortia had no common members, indicating that selective enrichment resulted in different end points. Consortium 1 and consortium 2 contained four and six bacterial species respectively, but both had two members that were able to collectively degrade 2,4-DNT.

Biological remediation of explosives and related nitroaromatic compounds.

Nitroaromatics form an important group of recalcitrant xenobiotics. Only few aromatic compounds, bearing one nitro group as a substituent of the aromatic ring, are produced as secondary metabolites by microorganisms. The majority of nitroaromatic compounds in the biosphere are industrial chemicals such as explosives, dyes, polyurethane foams, herbicides, insecticides and solvents.