Responses of a novel salt-tolerant Streptomyces albidoflavus DUT_AHX capable of degrading nitrobenzene to salinity stress

A novel salt-tolerant strain DUT_AHX, which was capable of utilizing nitrobenzene (NB) as the sole carbon source, was isolated from NB-contaminated soil. Furthermore, it was identified as Streptomyces albidoflavus on the basis of physiological and biochemical tests and 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence analysis. It can grow in the presence of NaCl up to 12% (w/v) or NB up to 900 mg/l in mineral salts basal (MSB) medium. The exogenously added osmoprotectants such as glycin, glutamic acid, proline, betaine and ectoine can improve growth of strain DUT_AHX in the presence of 10% (w/v) NaCl. NB-grown cells of strain DUT_AHX in modified MSB medium can degrade NB with the concomitant release of ammonia. Moreover, crude extracts of NB-grown strain DUT_AHX mainly contained 2-aminophenol 1,6-dioxygenase activity. These indicate that NB degradation by strain DUT_AHX might involve a partial reductive pathway. The proteins induced by salinity stress or NB were analyzed by native-gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-PAGE. In NB-induced proteins de novo, 141 kDa protein on the native-gradient PAGE gel was excised and electroeluted. Furthermore, enzyme tests exhibit the 2-aminophenol 1,6-dioxygenase activity of purified 141 kDa protein is 11-fold that of the cell-free extracts. The exploitation of strain DUT_AHX in salinity stress will be a remarkable improvement in NB bioremediation and wastewater treatment in high salinity.