The wide use of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), a synthetic fuel oxygenate, have caused extensive contamination in groundwater in past two decades and resulted in taste, odor, and potential toxicity problems in drinking water. MTBE contaminated groundwater aquifer is often depleted of oxygen and microorganisms can anaerobically degraded MTBE under a verity of redox conditions. It has been demonstrated that MTBE can be degraded anaerobically which makes in situ bioremediation of contaminated aquifers a potential solution to address this problem. Assessment and enhancement of MTBE bioremediation requires knowledge of the microorganisms that responsible for biodegradation process. However, it is challenge to isolate anaerobic MTBE-degrading microorganisms or to characterize the microbial communities. The aim of this study was to identify the organisms that mediate anaerobic biodegradation of MTBE in methanogenic or sulfidogenic cultures enriched from estuarine sediments. Stable isotope probing (SIP) combined with terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis showed that Ruminococcaceae species were active in methanogenic MTBE-degrading community. T-RFLP coupled with clone library analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA genes from sulfidogenic enrichment cultures showed Deltaproterobacteria were highly enriched than the other phylogenetically diverse populations. We also investigated MTBE-degrading communities by single cell using Raman Spectroscopy and SIP. The results confirmed the MTBE degraders are not abundant in the communities. This study provides crucial information for understanding the mechanisms of anaerobic degradation of MTBE as well as for assessment of the in situ bioremediation at contaminated field sites as the microbial/molecular tools.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Environmental Sciences
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Butyl methyl ether--Environmental aspects
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Drinking water--Contamination
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_6306
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (viii, 109 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Tong Liu
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.