Investigating mechanisms of chlorinated ethane biotransformation using compound specific carbon isotope analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Stable carbon isotope fractionation during biotransformation of the chlorinated ethanes 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA), 1,1,1-trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) and 1,1-dichloroethane (1,1-DCA) was investigated. Isotopic fractionation during aerobic 1,2-DCA biotransformation in microcosms, enrichment cultures and pure microbial cultures was measured and was found to be pathway dependent. Biodegradation of 1,2-DCA under aerobic conditions produced a consistent bimodal distribution of enrichment factors (s) with one mean c centered on –3.9 ± 0.6‰ and the other on –29.2 ± 1.9‰. Reevaluation of ϵ in terms of kinetic isotope effects 12k/ 13k, gave values of 12k/13k = 1.01 and 1.06, which are typical of oxidation and hydrolytic dehalogenation (S N2) reactions, respectively. The relationship between degradation pathway and measured carbon isotope fractionation was applied to constrain the degradation pathway of 1,2-DCA in a microbial enrichment culture capable of degrading 1,2-DCA under both O2 and NO3-reducing conditions, but where the degradation pathway was previously uncharacterized. δ 13C values indicated biodegradation in the enrichment culture under both O2 and NO3-reducing conditions likely proceeded via a hydrolytic dehalogenase enzyme. Stable carbon isotope analysis during biotransformation of other chlorinated ethanes was then investigated. Isotopic enrichment factors of -1.9‰ and -10.4‰ were measured during reductive dechlorination of 1,1,1-trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) and 1,1-dichloroethane (1,1-DCA), respectively. These are the first reported isotopic enrichment factors for microbial biotransformation of these compounds, which can now potentially be applied to investigate and quantify biodegradation of 1,1,1-TCA and 1,1-DCA in the field. Stable carbon isotope analysis was used to provide a conservative estimate of the extent of 1,2-DCA and trichloroethene (TCE) biodegradation in a biostimulation field study. Isotope analysis was able to confirm that 1,2-DCA degradation, rather than degradation of vinyl chloride, was the primary mechanism of ethene production at the site. This thesis not only advances the application of compound specific carbon isotope fractionation to identify and quantify biodegradation of chlorinated ethanes in groundwater, but in particular progresses our understanding of the relationship between the enzymatic mechanisms of contaminant degradation and isotopic fractionation, and the ability to use that knowledge to predict degradation mechanisms for previously unconstrained pathways of contaminant remediation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".