Transcriptional expression of the tceA gene in a Dehalococcoides-containing microbial enrichment

Dynamic changes in the transcriptional expression of the tceA gene, which encodes a trichloroethene reductive dehalogenase, were characterized in a Dehalococcoides-containing microbial enrichment culture. Expression was quantified by real-time PCR as the number of tceA transcripts per tceA gene. Expression of tceA increased 40-fold after chlorinated ethene-starved cells were exposed to trichloroethene (TCE), cis-dichloroethene (DCE), or 1,1-DCE but did not increase after exposure to tetrachloroethene or vinyl chloride. Surprisingly, tceA expression also increased 30-fold after cellular exposure to the nonmetabolic substrate trans-DCE, indicating that expression of tceA is induced by both growth-supporting and non-growth-supporting chlorinated ethenes. Additional experiments revealed that the level of tceA expression was independent of the concentration of chlorinated ethenes (sum concentrations of TCE and DCEs of 2.2 to 333 microM), the concentration of the electron donor hydrogen (concentrations of 12 nM to 17 microM), and the presence of alternate bacterial electron acceptors (5 mM concentrations of fumarate, sulfate, sulfite, thiosulfate, nitrate, or nitrite) but was highly dependent on incubation temperature.