Preliminary study on isolation and characterization of bacteria with defluorination towards perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) belongs to the class of persistent organic pollutants widely distributed in the environment, and has the characteristics of high bioaccumulation and refractory degradation in organisms. To date, there are limited reports on the microbial degradation of PFOA. In this pursuit, the present study envisaged the screening of microbes capable of degrading PFOA from the soils of eight sites in Huaxi district of Guizhou province, China, using the enrichment culture. Sixteen bacterial isolates were obtained in total, and their growth curves were found to be unimodal or bimodal in PFOA-spiked MSM cultural solutions. Five isolates of them, viz. 4-a, 5-b, 6-a, 7-c and 8-a, were further selected for in-depth study of PFOA degradation, and it was found that all of isolates could increase the concentrations of fluoride ions in the cultural solutions. The five PFOA-degrading bacteria were identified as Pseudomonas sp. Obtained Pseudomonas resources would contribute to the studies on the degradation of PFOA by the facultative anaerobes.