Monitoring bacterial consumption of low molecular weight lignin derivatives by high performance liquid chromatography

The lignolytic capacity of some natural bacterial isolates was examined. Strains were selected from samples of decaying wood by growth in a minimal medium containing aromatic compounds with a structural relationship to lignin as the sole carbon sources. These included derivatives of benzoic and phenylpropanoic acids, as well as a mixture of low molecular weight compounds obtained by fractionation of kraft lignin. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography analyses before and after cell growth in the latter revealed a degradation pattern of the different compounds present in the culture which was characteristic for each of the strains studied.