Abstract

Two bacterial strains, alkaliphilic bacteria Bacillus badius D1 were isolated from alkaline Crater Lake, (Lonar), Buldana, M.S, India, and neutrophilic bacterial strain Lysinbacillus sphaericus DL8 from dye disposal area of textile industry, Ichalkaranji, India. Fluoranthene, a model four-rings polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon was utilized as carbon and energy source by these bacteria. The degradation products of fluoranthene were isolated at every 12 hrs.. of incubation period. The generated metabolites were identified by using (GC-MS, FTIR and 1HNMR). Many metabolites of fluoranthene degradation were detected in the culture such as (9-fluorenone-1-carboxylic acid, 9-hydroxy-1-fluorene-carboxylic acid, 2-carboxybenzaldehyde, benzoic acid and phthalic acid). It has been observed that these two bacterial strains have degraded fluoranthene by two different ways. Incubation of fluoranthene with these bacterial strains also resulted in the induction of biotransformation enzymes like mono oxygenases, e.g. Aminopyrine N-demethylase, acetanilide hydroxylase and the content of cytochrome P-450. The influence of some experimental parameters like concentration of fluoranthene, pH, and temperature on the degradation of fluoranthene was also studied.