Microbial oxidation of sulfur in dibenzothiophene

✍ Scribed by Judith P. Kitchell; Saraswathy V. Nochur; Judith K. Marquis; Dennis A. Bazylinski; Holger Jannasch

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 439 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-3449
• DOI: 10.1016/0921-3449(91)90029-n

✦ Synopsis

An aerobic microorganism isolated from deep sea thermal vents in the Gulf of California and grown with the model coal compound dibenzothiophene (DBT) was found to produce DBT oxidation products, including DBT-sulfoxide and DBT-sulfone. The organism can utilize DBT as sole carbon and sulfur source, but grows better when the medium is supplemented with yeast extract. After five to seven days of incubation with DBT, some DBT-sulfoxide and, to a lesser extent, DBT-sulfone, intermediates in the desulfurization of DBT, were detected. When the culture was grown in medium with DBT-sulfoxide as substrate, little oxidation occurred, but when DBT-sulfone was used as substrate, it was rapidly degraded. The extracellular extract is also active against DBT, producing sulfur oxidation products.