ORIGINAL PAPER Metabolic characterization of a strain (BM90) of Delftia tsuruhatensis showing highly diversified capacity to degrade low molecular weight phenols Bele ´n Jua ´rez-Jime ´nez • Maximino Manzanera • Bele ´n Rodelas • Maria Victoria Martı ´nez-Toledo • Jesus Gonzalez-Lo ´pez • Silvia Crognale • Chiara Pesciaroli • Massimiliano Fenice Received: 17 June 2009 / Accepted: 18 November 2009 / Published online: 28 November 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract A novel bacterium, strain BM90, previ- ously isolated from Tyrrhenian Sea, was metaboli- cally characterized testing its ability to use 95 different carbon sources by the Biolog system. The bacterium showed a broad capacity to use fatty-, organic- and amino-acids; on the contrary, its ability to use carbohydrates was extremely scarce. Strain BM90 was identified and affiliated to Delftia tsuru- hatensis by molecular techniques based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. D. tsuruhatensis BM90, cultivated in shaken cultures, was able to grow on various phenolic compounds and to remove them from its cultural broth. The phenols used, chosen for their presence in industrial or agro-industrial effluents, were grouped on the base of their chemical charac- teristics. These included benzoic acid derivatives, cinnamic acid derivatives, phenolic aldehyde deriv- atives, acetic acid derivatives and other phenolic compounds such as catechol and p-hydroxyphenyl- propionic acid. When all the compounds (24) were gathered in the same medium (total concentration: 500 mg/l), BM90 caused the complete depletion of 18 phenols and the partial removal of two others. Only four phenolic compounds were not removed. Flow cytometry studies were carried out to under- stand the physiological state of BM90 cells in presence of the above phenols in various conditions. At the concentrations tested, a certain toxic effect was exerted only by the four compounds that were not metabolized by the bacterium. Keywords Delftia tsuruhatensis Á Biolog Á Phenolic compounds degradation Á Flow cytometry Á GC/MS Introduction Although some phenolic compounds (polyphenols), present in low concentration in various foods and beverages, are well-known healthy substances with antioxidant activity (Ng et al. 2000; Lodovici et al. 2001), in general phenols are very hazardous B. Jua ´rez-Jime ´nez Á M. Manzanera Á B. Rodelas Á M. V. Martı ´nez-Toledo Á J. Gonzalez-Lo ´pez Section Microbiology, Institute of Water Research of University of Granada, Ramo ´n y Cajal, sn., 18071 Granada, Spain S. Crognale Dipartimento di Agrobiologia e Agrochimica, University of Tuscia, Via San Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy C. Pesciaroli Á M. Fenice Dipartimento di Ecologia e Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile, University of Tuscia, Largo dell’Universita `, 01100 Viterbo, Italy M. Fenice (&) Laboratory of Applied Marine Microbiology, Conisma, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy e-mail: fenice@unitus.it 123 Biodegradation (2010) 21:475–489 DOI 10.1007/s10532-009-9317-4