BIODEGRADATION OF PHENOL USING STAPHYLOCOCCUS SP. ISOLATED FROM HOUSEPLANT POTTING SOIL

Background and Aim:Environmental pollution is one of the major today’s challenges. Phenolic compounds are environmental pollutants and found in the effluent of various industrial operations. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize phenol degrading bacteria from houseplant potting soil.Methods:About 5g of soil was transferred to a flask containing mineral salts medium with 1000 mg/l phenol as the sole carbon and energy source and incubated (120 rpm and 30˚C) on an orbital shaker. After detecting bacterial growth, 1 ml of medium was transferred to a new flask and this process was repeated three times. At the end of enrichment, bacterial strains were isolated by serial dilution on nutrient agar plates and purified strains were identified using 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis. Colorimetric method was used to measure phenol concentration in mediums.Results:Among the isolated strains a bacterium strain showed a higher phenol degradation ability and according to molecular analysis showed 99% similarity to Staphylococcus sp. Isolated strain degraded about 46% of medium phenol after 3days.Conclusion:In a nutshell, we isolated and characterized Staphylococcus sp. from houseplant potting soil. The results revealed the significant ability of this strain to utilize phenol as the only carbon and energy sources. Obviously, this strain may be used in bioremediation projects.

Keywords:

Staphylococcus sp. , phenol , bioremediation , pollution