Continuous cultures of Pseudomonas putida mt-2 overcome catabolic function loss under real case operating conditions

The long-term performance and stability of Pseudomonas putida mt-2 cultures, a toluene-sensitive strain harboring the genes responsible for toluene biodegradation in the archetypal plasmid pWW0, was investigated in a chemostat bioreactor functioning under real case operating conditions. The process was operated at a dilution rate of 0.1 h−1 under toluene loading rates of 259 ± 23 and 801 ± 78 g m−3 h−1 (inlet toluene concentrations of 3.5 and 10.9 g m−3, respectively). Despite the deleterious effects of toluene and its degradation intermediates, the phenotype of this sensitive P. putida culture rapidly recovered from a 95% Tol− population at day 4 to approx. 100% Tol+ cells from day 13 onward, sustaining elimination capacities of 232 ± 10 g m−3 h−1 at 3.5 g Tol m−3 and 377 ± 13 g m−3 h−1 at 10.9 g Tol m−3, which were comparable to those achieved by highly tolerant strains such as P. putida DOT T1E and P. putida F1 under identical experimental conditions. Only one type of Tol− variant, harboring a TOL-like plasmid with a 38.5 kb deletion (containing the upper and meta operons for toluene biodegradation), was identified.