Isolation and characterization of a cold-resistant PCB209-degrading bacterial strain from river sediment and its application in bioremediation of contaminated soil

A cold-resistant bacterium (strain QL) that can degrade 2,2',3,3',4,4',5,5',6,6'-decachlorobiphenyl (PCB209) was isolated from Wei-he River sediment. Strain QL was identified as a rod-shaped gram-negative bacterial strain, which was further identified as Comamonas testosteroni. C. testosteroni has never been reported to be capable of degrading PCB209 at low temperatures. In this study, the degradation characteristics showed that strain QL could grow with PCB209 as the sole carbon source at low temperatures (10 ± 0.5 °C). More significantly, strain QL of 40% inoculation volume was able to completely degrade PCB209 in 140 h (initial concentration of PCB209 was 100-500 µg L(-1) at 10 ± 0.5 °C and pH 7-8). The degradation process proceeded with zero-order reaction kinetics. Moreover, both laboratory simulation and real-world field experiments demonstrated that strain QL was effective in practical applications of PCB209 biodegradation in contaminated soil.