To assess the degradation activity of microorganisms for biphenyl/PCB, a method, which employs fluorescence released from the intermediate metabolite, was established. The metabolite is a yellow compound and releases green fluorescent when it exposed to the light of wavelength 460-490nm. To estimate the degradation activity for biphenyl, a fluorescent microscope was used to measure the fluorescence from the metabolite. Although actively biphenyl-degrading cells of TK102 were not detected under the microscope, when alkylated biphenyls were incubated with TK102, the cells were observed with green fluorescent, which originated from the metabolite.

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