Biodegration of Mixtures of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Under Aerobic and Nitrate-reducing Conditions

Contaminated sites often contain complex mixtures of aromatic compounds. This complex mixture and the system\u27s redox condition may influence biodegradation patterns. In this study, the biodegradation of PAHs in varying mixture combinations by a pure culture of Pseudomonas putida strain KBM-1 under aerobic conditions showed that the presence of naphthalene (2-ringed PAH) stimulated phenanthrene (3-ringed PAH) degradation five-fold and pyrene (4-ringed PAH) degradation two-fold. However, the presence of phenanthrene inhibited pyrene degradatio