Abstract

Chloroanilines are toxic aromatic compounds which cause environmental pollution, especially water problems, which harmfully affect human and aquatic species. Acinetobecter baumannii strain GFJ1 isolated from soil in Thailand was the first bacterial strain that could utilize several monochloroaniline, dichloroaniline and trichloroanilines as sources of carbon and nitrogen for growth. Among these compounds, GFJ1 degraded 4-chloroaniline and 3,4-chloroaniline with higher rates than others. The analysis of aerobic utilization profile via resting cells showed that the degradation kinetics followed the Michaelis-Menten model with the maximum specific degradation towards 4-chloroaniline and 3,4-dichloroaniline of 0.23 ± 0.03 and 0.37 ± 0.08 μM/(mg cell protein.hour), respectively.