Functional Genomics of the Biodegradation of the Emerging Contaminant 1,4-Dioxane

Environmental scientists and engineers have long taken advantage of microbial systems in biological processes for the treatment of wastewaters, the bioremediation of contaminated groundwater and soils, and the production of biofuels, but have often treated these biological processes as “black boxes.” Since the turn of the 21st century, the advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies and advancements in biomolecular techniques have advanced the study of microbial processes beyond the “black box” approach by enhancing our ability to perform analyses at various system levels, ranging from individual biomolecules all the way up to ecosystem interactions. The focus of this talk will be the application of high-throughput technologies (i.e., genomic sequencing and whole-genome expression microarrays), in combination with microbiological, molecular biology, and analytical chemistry techniques, to studying the biological systems involved in the biodegradation of the emerging water contaminant 1,4-dioxane at both biochemical, microbiological, and molecular levels. Potential strategies to utilize the data from genomics and transcriptomics methods to guide experimental design and future research in the field of biodegradation of emerging contaminants will also be discussed.