Isolation of a Novel Endophytic Bacillus Strain Capable of Transforming Pentachlorophenol and Structure Determination of Pentachlorophenol Phosphate Using Single-Crystal X-ray Diffraction.

A novel approach for the remediation of upland soils contaminated with pentachlorophenol (C 6 HCl 5 O; PCP) ( 1 ), a fungicide, wood perservative, and herbicide, through the exploitation of plant-endophytic bacteria may overcome the existing issues in bioaugmentaion and phytoremidiation. In this study, we isolated the endophytic Bacillus sp. strain PCP15 and determined its metabolite of PCP ( 1 ). This strain degraded 8.03 μmol L -1 PCP ( 1 ) within 24 h and generated the novel metabolite PCP phosphate ( 3 ). The PCP15 strain showed nearly complete growth inhibition of 20 μmol L -1 PCP ( 1 ). In contrast, PCP15 showed resistance to PCP phosphate ( 3 ), indicating that the phosphorylation of PCP, which has never previously been reported in organisms, contributed to the detoxification of PCP ( 1 ) in bacterial cells. Our results show the potential for practical application of this strain in hybrid remediation of PCP ( 1 )-contaminated soils and reveal a novel PCP ( 1 ) detoxification mechanism in organisms.