Life in pitch - Bacteria in a natural oil emitting lake help to understand anaerobic biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ; Leben im Teer - Bakterien eines natürlichen Teersees helfen die Abbauprozesse von polyzyklischen aromatischen Kohlenwasserstoffen zu verstehen

The research of anaerobic degradation of non-substituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is still in its infancy and most processes therein only poorly understood. Due to the poor bacterial degradation capabilities of PAHs, only few cultures exist that can be used to explore the underlying mechanisms. Their growth times are considerably longer than those of compounds with a smaller molecular weight and the production of biomass is substantially lower as shown by strain-specific FISH analyses and flow cytometry. Elucidation of pathways started in enrichment cultures growing on naphthalene as sole carbon and electron source and is at a point where individual steps are fairly well characterized through years of research. The next logical step is to look at compounds with a higher molecular weight to find similarities or dissimilarities in the pathways. The compound of interest in this thesis is phenanthrene, a three-ringed PAH without known degradation steps apart from a carboxylation as initial reaction (Zhang and Young 1997; Davidova et al. 2007). Parallels to anaerobic naphthalene degradation are expected due to similarities in the aromatic ring structure. In this thesis I wanted to find insights into the anaerobic degradation of phenanthrene as the next sized PAH beyond the initial carboxylation reaction. Therefore, we isolated bacteria able to degrade hydrocarbons under anoxic conditions from a naturally contaminated ecosystem, the pitch lake in Trinidad, Trinidad & Tobago. An enrichment culture growing anaerobically under sulfate reducing conditions was set up from sediments from the pitch lake. This culture was able to degrade phenanthrene as sole carbon and energy source. It was used to elucidate the anaerobic phenanthrene degradation pathway. Beyond the carboxylation reaction in the C2 position, which could be shown indirectly within the framework of this thesis by metabolite analysis and biochemical enzyme assays, I was able to show the ligation reaction from 2-phenanthroic acid to 2-phenanthroyl-CoA ...