TITLE:
Identification of water-borne bacterial isolates for potential remediation of organophosphate contamination
AUTHORS:
Rupa Iyer, Brian Iken
KEYWORDS:
Paraoxon Degradation; Methyl Parathion Degradation; Water Contamination; OP Pesticide
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Biological Chemistry,
Vol.3 No.1,
February
26,
2013
ABSTRACT: Three water-borne bacterial isolates were collected
from the Houston metropolitan area. Each isolate was capable of growing upon carbon
limited media inoculated with the organophosphorus (OP) compound paraoxon. All
isolates were able to efficiently metabolize paraoxon and, to a lesser
degree, methyl parathion to p-nitrophenol.
16S rDNA genome sequencing with universal bacterial primers identified the isolates
as species belonging to the genera Aeromonas, Steno- trophomonas, or Exiguobacterium. All screened isolates harbor organophosphorus
degradation (opd) genes that are
approximately 99% similar over approximately 660 base pairs sequenced
to one first isolated from Sphingobium fuliginis ATCC 27551 (formerly Flavobacterium sp. ATCC 27551). Additionally, two isolates KKWT11, identified as a putative Senotro-
phomonas maltophilia, and KKBO11, identified as a putative Exiguobacterium
indicum, were found to possess genomic DNA that closely matched a metallo- beta-lactamase
that has been reported to function as a methyl parathion degradation (mpd)
gene suggesting that both of these strains are prime candidates for
wastewater remediation of a broad range of OP compounds.