COMETABOLISMO EN LA BIODEGRADACIÓN DE HIDROCARBUROS COMETABOLISM IN THE BIODEGRADATION OF HYDROCARBONS

Microbial cometabolism, i.e. transformation of a non-growth substrate, namely cosubstrate, in the obligate presence of a growth substrate by growing cells, or by resting cells in the absent of a growth substrate, is a significant part of the total biodegradative activity toward xenobiotic compounds. In this work the importance of cometabolism in the biodegradation of hydrocarbons in the environment is discussed, due to hydrocarbons are the most common groundwater and soil pollutants. Varieties of kinetic equations, Monod or like Michaeles-Menten expressions that have been used to describe cometabolism are discussed; these models assumed that biodegradation takes place as single substrate and the interaction of growth- and non-growth substrate are described as toxic effect or competitive imhibition. Finally, the applicability of the cometabolism for in situ bioremediation is discussed, Methyl tert-Butyl Ether- and halogenated hydrocarbons are the most widespread studied compounds.