Microbial degradation of nonylphenol in some aquatic environments

We studied microbial consortia with nonylphenol (NP)-degrading activities from various aquatic environments in Tokyo. The microbes with notable activity were observed in two locations: Tokyo Bay and waste water of a sewage treatment plant. For the first sample's microbes, about 70% of NP was degraded in 45 days' incubation at 25 degrees C in the medium containing NP (1000 ppm) as a sole carbon source. For the second sample's microbes, NP was almost completely degraded in 30 days and succeeded several times with the increase of the degrading activities. In another medium in which the NP/glucose mole ratio was 1, the degrading activities were not affected by glucose.