Characterization of profenofos tolerant bacteria isolated from pesticide contaminated soil

Abstract

Profenofos is an organophosphate pesticide commonly used in Thailand and is often found to be contaminated in agricultural areas. Therefore, bacteria to be used in soil contaminated with profenofos have to be tolerant to the pesticide. This study aimed to isolate and partial characterize profenofos tolerant bacteria. Of all 10 randomly selected bacteria grown on nutrient agar containing 100 ppm of profenofos, it was found that the bacterial isolate PFN-03, a gram positive bacteria, was the most profenofos tolerant bacterial isolate. It was tolerant to profenofos as high as 2,000 ppm. Plasmid isolation did not find a plasmid in the bacterial isolate PFN-03 had no plasmid. From the 16S rDNA sequence analysis, it was identified as Brevibacillus brevis. The bacterium obtained from this study might be useful for its application in soil or environment contaminated with profenofos and organophosphate pesticides.