Bioaugmentation with GFP-Tagged Pseudomonas migulae AN-1 in Aniline-Contaminated Aquifer Microcosms: Cellular Responses, Survival and Effect on Indigenous Bacterial Community.

The recently isolated aniline-degrading bacterium Pseudomonas migulae AN-1 was tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) to investigate its bioaugmentation potential against anilinecontaminated groundwater through microcosm experiments. The survival and cellular response of GFP-tagged AN-1 introduced in a lab-scale aquifer corresponded directly with aniline consumption. During the process, the GFP-tagged AN-1 biomass increased from 7.52 × 10⁵ cells/ml to 128 × 10⁵ cells/ml and the degradation rate of aniline was 6.04 mg/l/h. GFP-tagged AN-1 was moderately hydrophobic (41.74%-47.69%) when treated with 20- 100 mg/l aniline and exhibited relatively strong hydrophobicity (55.25%-65.78%) when the concentration of aniline was ≥100 mg/l. The membrane permeability of AN-1 increased followed by a rise in aniline below 100 mg/l and was invariable with aniline above 100 mg/l. Pyrosequencing analysis showed that the relative abundance of Proteobacteria (accounted for 99.22% in the non-bioaugmentation samples) changed to 89.23% after bioaugmentation with GFP-tagged AN-1. Actinobacteria increased from 0.29% to 2.01%, whereas the abundance of Firmicutes barely changed. These combined findings demonstrate the feasibility of removing aniline in aquifers by introducing the strain AN-1 and provide valuable information on the changes in the diversity of dominant populations during bioaugmentation.