Isolation of a Pseudomonas Stutzeri strain that degrades 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene and characterization of its degradative plasmid

The genetic information encoding metabolic pathways for xenobiotic compounds in bacteria often resides on catabolic plasmids. The aim of the present work was to know the location of the genes for degrading 1,2,4-trichlorobenzen. In this paper a 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene-degrading strain THSL-1 was isolated from the soil of Tianjin Chemical Plant using 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene as the sole carbon source. The strain was identified as Pseudomonas stutzeri through morphologic survey and 16S rDNA sequence determination. A plasmid was discovered from strain THSL-1 by using the alkali lysis method. When the plasmid was transformed into E. coli. JM109 by the CaCl₂ method, the transformant could grow using 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene as the sole carbon source and had the degradation function of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene. Therefore, it could be deemed that the plasmid carried the degradative genes of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene. The average size of the plasmid was finally determined to be 40.2 Kb using selectively three kinds of restricted inscribed enzymes (HindIII, BamHI, and XholI) for single cutting and double cutting the plasmid pTHSL-1, respectively.