Abstract

BIOREMEDIAL POTENTIAL OF INDIGENOUS BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM PESTICIDE CONTAMINATED SOIL

K. R. Pawar* and G. V. Mali

Abstract

Quinalphos is an organothiophosphate pesticide used extensively in agriculture to control pests. The intensive use of pesticides resulted in persistence and dispersal of pollutants throughout the global environment. Bioremediation of these pesticides in contaminated soil and water environments has become one of the most sensational issues due to their deleterious effect on environment as well as on public health. A bacterium capable of degrading quinalphos was isolated from pesticide-contaminated soil samples as grape wine yards and identified as Acinetobacter sp. 7-13 based on its morphological, biochemical characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences. A total of 12 isolates of indigenous bacteria were isolated. Out of all the isolates Acinetobacter was found to be most efficient bacterium in degradation of Quinalphos and can be used for bioremediation of contaminated sites. This bacterium possessed relatively higher degradation capacity of degrading quinalphos (15000 g/L) by 87.82 % after incubating 7 days at temperature 350C and pH 7.0. Though, this bacterium is indigenous, can be used directly in bioremediation process without any growth conditions.

Keywords: Bioremediation, indigenous, Acinetobacter, Quinalphos.