Mutant AFM 2 of Alcaligenes faecalis for phenol biodegradation using He–Ne laser irradiation

He–Ne laser technology was utilized in this study to investigate the response of Alcaligenes faecalis to laser stimulation. The irradiation experiments were conducted by the adjustment of the output power from 5 to 25 mW and the exposure time from 5 to 25 min. The results showed that the survival rate changed regularly with the variety of irradiation dose, and high positive mutation frequency was determined by both the energy density and the output power. The mutant strain AFM 2 was obtained. Phenol biodegradation assay demonstrated that AFM 2 possessed a more prominent phenol-degrading potential than its parent strain, which presumably attributed to the improvements of phenol hydroxylase and catechol 1,2-dioxygenase activities. The phenol of 2000 mg l−1 was completely degraded by AFM 2 within 85.5 h at 30 °C. In addition, the cell growth and phenol degradation kinetics of the mutant strain AFM 2 and its parent strain in batch cultures were also investigated at the wide initial phenol concentration ranging from 0 to 2000 mg l−1 by Haldane model. The results of these experiments further demonstrated that the mutant strain AFM 2 possessed a higher capacity to resist phenol.