Application of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography/High Resolution Mass Spectrometry to the Investigation of the Biodegradation and Transformation of Phenanthrene by a Plasmid Bearing Rhizosphere Bacteria Pseudomonas aureofaciens

Mass spectrometry was applied to identify metabolites and estimate the efficiency of phenanthrene biodegradation and transformation by rhizosphere bacteria Pseudomonas aureofaciens BS1393. Strains P. aureofaciens BS1393(pOV17) and P. aureofaciens BS1393(NPL-41) bearing various naphthalene biodegradation plasmids were used in the work. The strain BS1393(pOV17) contains the pOV17 wild type naphthalene biodegradation plasmid that determines the oxidation of naphthalene to Krebs cycle metabolites. The strain BS1393(NPL-41) contains the mutant plasmid NPL-41 governing the initial stages of naphthalene oxidation into salicylic acid. The limiting stages of phenanthrene biodegradation in bacteria with various plasmids have been identified according to the accumulation of intermediates. When bacteria were grown on phenanthrene, the main metabolites were as follows: (a) 2-hydroxy-2H-benzo[h]chromene-2-carboxylic acid/trans-4-(1-hydroxynaph-2-yl)-2-oxobut-3-enoic acid, (b) 1-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid, and (c) salicylic acid. In the strain BS1393(pOV17), metabolite (а) was observed during 1–14 days of cultivation. Unlike it, in the strain BS1393(NPL-41), an insignificant amount of this metabolite was found after only 14 days. The availability of metabolite (b) in the growth of both strains was an evidence of the limited rate of its further decarboxylation. Metabolite (c) as a final product was found in the growth of the strain BS1393(NPL-41). Contrastingly, in the strain BS1393(pOV17), this metabolite was not found, which indicates the complete oxidation of phenanthrene.