He Jianzhong, Ritalahti Kirsti M, Yang Kun-Lin, Koenigsberg Stephen S, Löffler Frank E
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0512, USA.
Nature. 2003 Jul 3;424(6944):62-5. doi: 10.1038/nature01717.
Tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) are ideal solvents for numerous applications, and their widespread use makes them prominent groundwater pollutants. Even more troubling, natural biotic and abiotic processes acting on these solvents lead to the accumulation of toxic intermediates (such as dichloroethenes) and carcinogenic intermediates (such as vinyl chloride). Vinyl chloride was found in at least 496 of the 1,430 National Priorities List sites identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and its precursors PCE and TCE are present in at least 771 and 852 of these sites, respectively. Here we describe an unusual, strictly anaerobic bacterium that destroys dichloroethenes and vinyl chloride as part of its energy metabolism, generating environmentally benign products (biomass, ethene and inorganic chloride). This organism might be useful for cleaning contaminated subsurface environments and restoring drinking-water reservoirs.
四氯乙烯（PCE）和三氯乙烯（TCE）是众多应用中的理想溶剂，它们的广泛使用使其成为显著的地下水污染物。更令人担忧的是，作用于这些溶剂的自然生物和非生物过程会导致有毒中间体（如二氯乙烯）和致癌中间体（如氯乙烯）的积累。在美国环境保护局确定的1430个国家优先污染名单场地中，至少496个场地发现了氯乙烯，其前体PCE和TCE分别存在于至少771个和852个这些场地中。在此，我们描述了一种不寻常的严格厌氧细菌，它在能量代谢过程中会破坏二氯乙烯和氯乙烯，产生对环境无害的产物（生物质、乙烯和无机氯）。这种微生物可能有助于清理受污染的地下环境和恢复饮用水源。
