Characterization of an enriched anaerobic culture having ability to dechlorinate TCE

An anaerobic mixed microbial culture was enriched from soil and groundwater taken from a site contaminated with trichloroethene (TCE). This enrichment culture could dechlorinate TCE sequentially to cis-dichloroethene (cis-DCE), vinyl chloride (VC), and ethene rapidly within 2 weeks. This enrichment culture could utilize various organic compounds, such as methanol, ethanol, and sodium acetate and so on, as electron donor. This culture had maintained high ability of TCE dechlorination for about 3 years since the start of enrichment cultivation. The optimum pH value for the dechlorination activity of this culture, which reacts from TCE to ethene, was 6.7. However above the pH value 7.1, it lost the dechlorination ability of cis-DCE and VC. So cis-DCE was remained at that pH conditions. From the DNA sequencing analysis of 16SrRNA gene, this enrichment culture includes Dehalococcoides sp. which has the ability to dechlorinate TCE to VC completely with hydrogen. It suggested that this Dehalococcoides sp. takes part in the dechlorination of chloroethenes.