World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF PESTICIDE DEGRADING BACTERIA

Pranali Patil and Minal Trivedi*

ABSTRACT

In India pesticides play an important role in agricultural. Their importance in crop yield improvement is a well known fact but at the same time their toxic nature is a threat to the environment. Due to its toxicity and persistence in the environment, there is an immediate need to eliminate them from contaminated sites by biodegradation. In this study, an enrichment culture technique was used to isolate bacterial strains from farm soil, garden soil and nursery soil for degrading high concentrations of chlorpyrifos pesticide. Five bacteria (G1, F2, F3, F4, F5) isolated and both qualitative and quantitative screening was done for isolated bacteria. Also the optimum temperature, pH and NaCl concentration was determined for them. Isolated bacteria were identified by their gram nature, biochemical characterization and according to Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology isolated bacteria were identified as Staphylococcus aureus (G1), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (F2), Microccous luteus (F3), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (F5) and F4 could not be identified. Then, their antibiotic sensitivity test by disc diffusion method was studied. By miniprep method of plasmid DNA isolation it was found out that four isolates (F2, F3, F4, F5) showed presence of plasmid DNA and then plasmid curing was done using ethidium bromide as curing agent. After curing all bacteria were able to grow on nutrient agar plate supplemented with chlorpyrifos pesticide, it showed that pesticide degrading responsible gene present on bacterial chromosome. Thus, these pesticide degrading bacterial species can be used for bioremediation of contaminated soils.

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