Destruction of phthalic acids by Paenarthrobacter sp. SA101 isolated from the wastewater of a chemical plant

Phthalic and terephthalic acids (PA and TPA) are widely used in the chemical industry as plasticizers, for the production of polymer materials, and therefore are common eco-pollutants. The ability of the strain Paenarthrobacter sp. SA101, isolated from a sample of a chemical plant wastewater (Perm), to growth on high concentrations of PA and TPA was studied. It was shown that strain SA101 is capable of efficient growth on these substrates at concentrations up to 20 g/l, which is shown for the representatives of the genus Paenarthrobacter for the first time. Higher strain growth parameters were recorded in media with PA, than in media with TPA: the maximum value of OD600 (1.64), the highest specific growth rate (0.073±0.003 h-1) and the shortest lag phase were observed in a medium with 10 g/l of PA. The highest specific growth rate (0.04±0.002 h-1) and the maximum value of OD600 (1.6) were observed with 20 g/l of TPA, however, the lag phase of growth was longer than in the medium with 10 g/l of TPA. The strain SA101 was able to utilize 76% of PA in 39 hours and 74.2% of TPA in 71 hours of cultivation, when using these substrates at a concentration of 10 g/l. The cells of the strain SA101 contain a plasmid with a molecular weight of ~ 100 bp. The strain SA101 is promising for the development of biotechnological methods for cleaning phthalate-contaminated soils and industrial effluents.