Soil Bacteria in Chlorpyrifos Biodegradation

Abstract

The Chlorpyrifos is a broad spectrum organophosphate insecticide used against various crop pests and household pests. The excessive usage of this moderately hazardous pesticide adds up residues to the environment and become toxic to human and animal health. Biodegradation by the microbes is a viable and ecologically safe option to remediate Chlorpyrifos residues from the contaminated environment. A few microbes have the ability to degrade this pesticide for carbon and energy source. The soil bacterial species under Bacillus and Pseudomonas genera such as B. cereus, B. pumilus, B. subtilis, P. putida, P. stutzeri, P. aeruginosa, etc. have high Chlorpyrifos biodegradation efficiency. Alcaligenes sp, Agrobacterium sp., Enterobacter sp., Klebsiella sp., Serratia sp., Stenotrophomonas sp., Sphingomonas sp., Ralstonia sp., Flavobacterium sp, etc. isolated from soil also reported for having potential for degradation of Chlorpyrifos. The bacteria as isolate or in consortium degraded the pesticide by its enzymatic activities depending on environmental factors. The regular application of the pesticide in the agricultural soil results in increase of resistant bacteria with high degradation potential. The genes from these indigenous bacterial strains act as the gene pools for the development of recombinant microbes with pesticide mineralization property. These soil bacteria have been exploited for the insitu bioremediation and clean up of Chlorpyrifos contaminated soil.