Respiration of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene by Pseudomonas sp. strain JLR11

Under anoxic conditions Pseudomonas sp. strain JLR11 can use 2,4, 6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) as the sole N source, releasing nitrite from the aromatic ring and subsequently reducing it to ammonium and incorporating it into C skeletons. This study shows that TNT can also be used as a terminal electron acceptor in respiratory chains under anoxic conditions by Pseudomonas sp. strain JLR11. TNT-dependent proton translocation coupled to the reduction of TNT to aminonitrotoluenes has been observed in TNT-grown cells. This extrusion did not occur in nitrate-grown cells or in anaerobic TNT-grown cells treated with cyanide, a respiratory chain inhibitor. We have shown that in a membrane fraction prepared from Pseudomonas sp. strain JLR11 grown on TNT under anaerobic conditions, the synthesis of ATP was coupled to the oxidation of molecular hydrogen and to the reduction of TNT. This phosphorylation was uncoupled by gramicidin. Respiration by Pseudomonas sp. strain JLR11 is potentially useful for the biotreatment of TNT in polluted waters and soils, particularly in phytorhizoremediation, in which bacterial cells are transported to the deepest root zones, which are poor in oxygen.