Scientists decipher genome of bacterium that destroys chlorinated

[NNadir]

solvents.

"Scientists decipher genome of bacterium that helps clean up major groundwater pollutants
Chemical byproducts of dry cleaning and silicon chip production are dechlorinated by the microbe dehalococcoides ethenogenes
Rockville, MD – Scientists have deciphered the genome sequence of a microbe that can be used to clean up pollution by chlorinated solvents – a major category of groundwater contaminants that are often left as byproducts of dry cleaning or industrial production.
The study of the DNA sequence of Dehalococcoides ethenogenes, which appears in the January 7 issue of Science, found evidence that the soil bacterium may have developed the metabolic capability to consume chlorinated solvents fairly recently – possibly by acquiring genes in an adaptation related to the increasing prevalence of the pollutants.

"The genome sequence contributes greatly to the understanding of what makes this microbe tick and why it's metabolic diet is so unusual," says TIGR scientist Rekha Seshadri, the primary author of the Science paper.

D. ethenogenes, which was discovered by Cornell University scientists at a sewage treatment plant in Ithaca, NY, is the only known microbe that is known to reductively dechlorinate the pervasive groundwater pollutants tetrachloroethelene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE). That dechlorination produces a nontoxic byproduct, ethene..."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-01/tifg-sdg010405.php

I have TCE in my well well beyond the action level, and I find this organism of considerable interest.