Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) biodegradation capacity revealed by a genome-function relationship approach.

Our results established a comprehensive PAH-degrading gene database and a genome-function relationship approach, which revealed several potential novel PAH-degrader lineages. Importantly, this genome-centric and function-oriented approach can overcome the bottleneck of conventional cultivation-based biodegradation research and substantially expand our current knowledge on the potential degraders of environmental pollutants.