Biodegradation of 4,5,6-Trichloroguaiacol by White Rot Fungi, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trametes versicolor, and Inonotus cuticularis

수질분해균(水質分解菌)에 의한 4,5,6-Trichloroguaiacol의 미생물분해(微生物分解)

In order to evaluate the biodegradability and mechanism of 4,5,6-trichloroguaiacol (TCG) produced from bleaching process in pulp mill by Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trametes versicolor, and Inonotus cuticularis, changes in TCG and its metabolites during biodegradation were analyzed by HPLC, and GC/MS spectrometry. By three fungi, the maximum biodegradability against TCG were very quickly reached, compared with other chlorinated aromatic compounds such as PCP. Within 24 hrs, T versicolor indicated up to 95% of TCG removal rate, and P. chrysosporium and I. cuticularis also showed more than 80%, and 90%, respectively. Particularly, in case of T. versicolor, the removal rate of TCG after 1 hr. incubation was reached to approximately 90%, implying very rapid metabolization of TCG. However, by analyzing the filtrates extracted from TCG containing culture by GC/MS, the major metabolites at initial stage of biodegradation were dimers, indicating that the added TCG monomers were quickly polymerized. The others were trichloroveratrole, dichloroguaiacol, and trichlorobenzoic acid, suggesting that TCG may be biodegraded by several sequential reactions such as polymerization, oxidation, methylation, dechlorination, and hydroxylation. In other experiments, the extracellular fluid which did not contain any fungal mycelia was used to evaluate the effect of mycelia on TCG biodegradation. The extracellular fluid of T. versicolor also biodegraded TCG up to 90% within 24hrs, but those of P. chrysosporium and I. cuticularis did not show any good biodegradability. T versicolor showed the highest value of laccase, and other two fungi indicated a little activity of lignin peroxidase (LiP) and manganese peroxidase (MnP). In addition, the laccase activity of T. versicolor was very linearly proportional to the removal rate of TCG during incubation, in other words, showing the induction effect against TCG. Consequently, the biodegradation of TCG was very dependent upon the activity of laccase.