Carbon Isotope Fractionation during Aerobic Biodegradation of Trichloroethene by Burkholderia cepacia G4: a Tool To Map Degradation Mechanisms

The strain Burkholderia cepacia G4 aerobically mineralized trichloroethene (TCE) to CO(2) over a time period of approximately 20 h. Three biodegradation experiments were conducted with different bacterial optical densities at 540 nm (OD(540)s) in order to test whether isotope fractionation was consistent. The resulting TCE degradation was 93, 83.8, and 57.2% (i.e., 7.0, 16.2, and 42.8% TCE remaining) at OD(540)s of 2.0, 1.1, and 0.6, …