Aerobic sludge granules pre-grown on glucose were bioaugmented with a plasmid pJP4 carrying strain Pseudomonas putida SM1443 in a fed-batch microcosm system and a lab-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) to enhance their degradation capacity to 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The fed-batch test results showed that the bioaugmented aerobic granule system gained 2,4-D degradation ability faster and maintained a more stable microbial community than the control in the presence of 2,4-D. 2,4-D at the initial concentration of about 160 mg/L was nearly completely removed by the bioaugmented granule system within 62 h, while the control system only removed 26% within 66 h. In the bioaugmented SBR which had been operated for 90 days, the seeded aerobic granules pre-grown on glucose successfully turned into 2,4-D degrading granules through bioaugmentation and stepwise increase of 2,4-D concentration from 8 to 385 mg/L. The granules showed a compact structure and good settling ability with the mean diameter of about 450 mu m. The degradation kinetics of 2,4-D by the aerobic granules can be described with the Haldane kinetics model with V-max = 31.1 mg 2,4-D/gVSS h, K-i = 597.9 mg/L and K-s = 257.3 mg/L, respectively. This study shows that plasmid mediated bioaugmentation is a feasible strategy to cultivate aerobic granules degrading recalcitrant pollutants. (C). 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.