JAYANTHI ABRAHAM AND MANNEY SANTHOSH REDDY
Abstract
In the present work, as a measure of bioremediation, soil bacteria and fungi capable of degrading monocrotophos were isolated from pesticide contaminated sugarcane field in Vellore. Four acterial and 3 fungal isolates which had the ability to degrade monocrotophos (MCP) were isolated by enrichment technique. Minimum inhibitory concentration of the pesticide was evaluated and among the four isolates only one strain was found to grow well and degrade monocrotophos at 1000 mg l-1. The 16S rRNA gene sequence confirmed the isolate to be Achromobacter sp. Among the three fungal isolates, only one strain was capable of withstanding 900 mg l-1 concentration of monocrotophos and it was identified as Aspergillus sp. Iodegradation studies confirmed that monocrotophos was degraded by JAS10 and F2 strain within 24 h to an undetectable level. These results suggest that the isolated strains could be used in the Bioremediation of soil contaminated with monocrotophos.