Metabolism of pentachlorophenol by a soil microbe.

Metabolism of pentachlorophenol (PCP)-ring-14C(U) by a microorganism (Pseudomonas sp.) isolated from soil was examined. The microorganism degraded PCP-14C rapidly, and released 14CO2 equivalent to approximately 50% of the PCP-14c added to the bacterial cell suspension in 1 hour of incubation. The results of amino acid analysis of the bacterial cells incubated with PCP-14C showed that radioactive carbon derived from PCP-14C was incorporated rapidly into the cell constituents, and that the pattern of 14C-amino acids in the cell constituents was not much different between the 15 minute and 24 hour incubation periods. Intermediate metabolities of PCP isolated from the incubation medium were identified as tetrachlorocatechol and tetrachlorohydroquinone by spectral analyses.