Biodegradation of Aromatics Such as Benzene, Toluene and Phenol by Pseudomonas Strain

The environment is home to thousands of life forms and the day to day human activities are posing a serious threat to these organisms and leading them to the path of extinction. A wide range of pollutants are seen contaminating resources such as air, water and land. One major issue of water pollution is due to industrial effluents which includes a combination of phenolics and aromatic hydrocarbons. These organic compounds are said to be toxic to life even in minor quantities. An effective approach to detoxify these contaminated water sources and make it sustainable is by bioremediation. Microbes bioremediate the environment as they biodegrade the pollutants to obtain energy. Among aromatics, phenols and their derivatives from the principal group of environmental contaminants. Even at low levels they are toxic and they pose a threat to the biosphere because of their recalcitrant nature. Pseudomonas was the bacteria chosen for the study due to its versatile nature. The bacteria were isolated and characterized using biochemical tests. It was then subjected to degrade organic compounds such as benzene, toluene and phenol. The bacteria showed optimal growth in the presence of these compounds and could metabolize them effectively. A concentration of up to 6% benzene, 2% toluene and 0.5% phenol was found to be degraded. The aromatics were found to be assimilated by the end of 24 hours. The bacteria were successful in biodegradation of these aromatic hydrocarbons and proves to be a novel strain capable of biodegradation of these aromatics at such high concentrations and thus, proves to be a promising solution to decontaminate water resources that are affected due to them.