Revista de biorremediación y biodegradación

Abstracto

Enrichment of Phenol Degrading Moderately Halophilic Bacterial Consortium from Saline Environment

Krishnaswamy Veena Gayathri and Namasivayam Vasudevan

A versatile, moderately halophilic bacterial consortium was developed for the biodegradation of phenolic compounds under saline conditions. The bacterial consortium was isolated from mixtures of soil from phenol contaminated sites and as well as from areas having proximity to saline environment. The isolated moderately halophilic bacterial consortium utilized different phenolic compounds as sole source of carbon source. Phenol was utilized by the consortium at a range of salt concentrations from 10- 150 g/L NaCl where the optimum degradation was achieved at 50 g/L of NaCl. The bacterial consortium utilized up to 300 mg/L of phenol most effi ciently than the individual strains present in the consortium under saline conditions. The 16S r-RNA gene analysis and biochemical tests showed that the bacterial consortium contained six bacterial strains, which were identifi ed as Bacillus cereus, Arthrobacter sp., Bacillus licheniformis, Halomonas salina, Bacillus pumilus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Such moderately halophilic bacterial consortium might be useful for the treatment of industrial saline wastewater, particularly, in environments contaminated with phenolic wastes.