Phenotypic Plasticity During Organofluorine Degradation Revealed by Adaptive Evolution

Adaptive laboratory evolution yielded changes to improve organofluorine tolerance in Pseudomonas putida ATCC 12633 in recombinant strains containing one of two defluorinases. Strains can now yield more complete organofluorine degradation as well as shorter lag phase and faster exponential growth rate. This will be applicable as a chassis for future PFAS biodegradation.