Fig 3.

Anaerobic oxidation of benzene by strain Ben. (A) Cell growth, accumulation of Fe(II) from Fe(III) reduction, and benzene loss in medium with benzene as the sole electron donor and Fe(III) oxide as the sole electron acceptor. (B) Cell growth, accumulation of AHQDS from AQDS reduction, and benzene loss in medium with benzene as the sole electron donor and AQDS as the sole electron acceptor. (C) Production of ¹⁴CO₂ from [¹⁴C]benzene and associated Fe(II) or AHQDS accumulation. Production of ¹⁴CO₂ from [¹⁴C]benzene by concentrated cell with AQDS as electron acceptor is shown as an inset in panel C. As outlined in Materials and Methods, the results presented in panel C are from different sets of experiments than those shown in panels A and B. The results are means and standard deviations for triplicate cultures. The P values versus time zero for cell number, Fe(III) reduction, AQDS reduction, and benzene loss data collected during the stationary phase (panel A, day 8 to day 26; panel B, day 13 to day 29) are <0.05.