Anaerobic organism capable of dechlorinating a wide variety of environmental pollutants. Dehalococcoides mccartyi CBDB1

Dehalococcoides sp. CBDB1. This strain was isolated from an enriched chlorobenzene-dechlorinatng mixed culture from anoxic river sediment. It is capable of reductive dechlorination, replacing chlorine with hydrogen, of environmental pollutants such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDDs and PCDFs), by utilizing them as electron acceptors during anaerobic respiration. Genome analysis suggests this organism has 32 reductive-dehalogenase-homologous loci, arranged as two genes, rdhA and rdhB. RdhA is thought to be the active subunit while the hydrophobic protein RhdB is presumably a membrane-anchor for RdhA. The rdh loci are typically found in the origin-proximal portion of the chromosome, and are usually transcribed in the direction of DNA replication, suggesting that they are highly expressed. These genes are also associated with genes encoding two-component and other types of regulatory systems, suggesting that these loci are under regulatory control based on environmental stimuli.