Nitrate contamination of water environments can create serious problems such as eutrophication of rivers. Conventional biological processes for nitrate removal by heterotrophic denitrification often need additional organic substrates as carbon sources and electron donors. We tried to accelerate biological denitrification by using bioelectrochemical reactor (BER) in which electrode works as an electron donor. Denitrification activity of 8 environmental samples from various sediments, soils, groundwaters, and sludges were tested to establish an efficient enrichment culture for BER. The established enrichment culture from a soil sample showed stable denitrification activity without any nitrite accumulation. Microbial community analysis by using PCR-DGGE method revealed that dominant denitrifiers in the enrichment culture were Pantoea sp., Cronobacter sakazakii, and Castellaniella defragrans. Denitrification rate (0.08 kg/m3·day) of the enrichment culture in BER with electrode poised at -0.5 V (vs Ag/AgCl) was higher than that (2.1×10-2kg/m3·day) of BER without any poised potential. This results suggested that biological denitrification would be improved by supplying potential throughout electrode in BER. Further research using BER without any organic substrate addition is needed to apply this system for bioremediation of water and wastewater contaminated by nitrate.