Isolation of Novel Toluene Degrading Bacteria from Waste Water Treatment Plants and Determination of their Toluene Tolerance and other Biotechnological Potential

Abstract

Toluene is an aromatic hydrocarbon and spreads to the environment by the release of petroleum products, agricultural and industrial activities and toluene can cause serious social and health problems. Since the removal in toluene is considered an important environmental issue, there is an increasing interest of toluene biodegradation. In this comprehensive study, novel toluene degrading bacteria were isolated and identified both from municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants. Isolates' toluene tolerance, enzyme production, benzene, ethyl benzene, xylene and phenol degradation potentials and biofilm formation were examined. Totally 109 bacterial isolates were obtained and most of them were determined as belong to Stenotrophomonas, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas species.Isolates' toluene tolerance, enzyme production, benzene, ethyl benzene, xylene and phenol degradation potentials and biofilm formation were examined. Most of isolates showed lipase, DNase and protease activity. Most of isolates showed growth in 300 mg/l -1 concentrations of benzene, ethyl benzene, xylene and phenol. Strains E4T16, 3AT2 and 3ET5 showed maximum growth in high toluene concentrations and also strain E4T16 showed growth up to 2100mg/l -1 toluene. Examination of biofilm formation at different toluene concentrations at the end of the 96 hours incubation revealed that strains E4T16, 4ET21 and 3ET5 had highly biofilm production potential. In conclusion, these bacteria and results could be considered as a powerful new approach for the removal of hydrocarbons from wastewater.

Identification of hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial consortium isolated from the oil-contaminated muddy soil in Hanoi, Vietnam

“…The isolation of bacteria directly from oil contaminated sites as oily sludge and soil was reported in the references. From hydrocarbons contaminated environments, many strains of the genera Psedudomonas, Brucella, Stenotrophomonas indicated the possibility of growth and degradation hydrocarbons (Muthukumar et al, 2003;Kumari et al, 2018;Poyraz, 2021). Pseudomonas mendocina was reported about degradation of phenanthrene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, citronellol, citronellal and citronellyl acetate (Kumari et al, 2018;Tian et al, 2002;Tozoni et al, 2010).…”

Isolation of Petroleum Degraders and Petroleum-Degradation Characteristics of Crude Enzymes from <i>Providencia rettgeri</i> L1

“…Current researches about bioaugmentation focus on screening strains or microbial consortium with high-degrading efficiency. Many degraders were isolated, mixed consortiums were constructed, corresponding agents were prepared and then applied into the contaminated sites [5][6][7]. However, it took a long time for degrading microbes to degrade the petroleum contaminants.…”