Isolation and characterization of anthracene degrading bacteria from soil contaminated with petroleum wastes

Abstract

Poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are one of the most widespread organic pollutants. Among the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), anthracene is highly carcinogenic. The vast amount of bacterial genomic data provides unparalleled opportunities for understanding the genetic and molecular bases of the degradation of organic pollutants In the present work, it is designed to isolate and identify anthracene degrading bacterial species from soil contaminated with wastes of petroleum industry. The efficiency of biodegradation capacity of isolated microorganism was measured by U.V spectroscopy. Soil samples contaminated with petroleum wastes were grown on MM9 medium. The cultures were then transferred onto the GSP agar medium for the presence of Pseudomonas species. The presence of yellow to red coloration indicated the presence of Pseudomonas species. Further, the isolates were identified on the basis of morphological, trophic and biochemical traits according to the Bergey’s Manual of systemic bacteriology (1994). Chromosomal DNA is isolated from the isolated bacterial species. Spectrophotometric and electrophoretic analysis of the DNA has been done and compared with that of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853.DNA purity was estimated from A_280, A₂₆₀ and A₂₃₀ values. Based on the percentage of cytosine to guanine content the isolated organism may be considered as Pseudomonas stutzery. Around 76% of anthracene was degraded by isolated pseudomonas species.