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Biodegradation of some organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides is difficult because of their low solubility in water and, therefore, their low bioavailability. To overcome the hydrophobicity problem and the limited pesticide availability, biosurfactants play a major role. In this study, we evaluated the effect of an extract from Pseudomonas sp. B0406 strain with surfactant properties, on the solubility of two pesticides: endosulfan (ED) and methyl parathion (MP). Such a process was performed in order to increase the aqueous solubility of both pesticides, to increase its availability to microorganisms and to promote their biodegradation. The extract from Pseudomonas sp. B0406 showed a critical micellar concentration of 1.4 g/L and the surface tension at that point was 40.4 mN/m. The preliminary chemical and physical partial characterization of the extract with surfactant properties indicated that it is an anionic glycolipid, which increases the solubility of both pesticides of 0.41 at 0.92 mg/L for ED and of 34.58 at 48.10 mg/L for MP. The results of this study suggest the effectiveness of this extract in improving the solubility of both pesticides ED and MP in water and, therefore, of its potential use to enhance the degradation of these pesticides.

The tons of organic waste that are annually generated by agro-industry, can be used as raw material for methane production. For this reason, it is important to previously perform biodegradability tests to organic wastes for their full scale methanization. This paper addresses biodegradability, methane production and the behavior of populations of eubacteria and archaeabacteria during anaerobic digestion of banana, mango and papaya agroindustrial wastes. Mango and banana wastes had higher organic matter content than papaya in terms of their volatile solids and total solid rate (94 and 75% respectively). After 63 days of treatment, the highest methane production was observed in banana waste anaerobic digestion: 63.89ml CH4/per gram of chemical oxygen demand of the waste. In the PCR-DGGE molecular analysis, different genomic footprints with oligonucleotides for eubacteria and archeobacteria were found. Biochemical methane potential results proved that banana wastes have the best potential to be used as raw material for methane production. The result of a PCR- DGGE analysis using specific oligonucleotides enabled to identify the behavior of populations of eubacteria and archaeabacteria present during the anaerobic digestion of agroindustrial wastes throughout the process.

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A tezontle-packed up-flow reactor (TPUFR) with an immobilized bacterial consortium for biological treatment of methyl-parathion and tetrachlorvinphos was evaluated. These organophosphate pesticides are widely used in Mexico for insect and mite control, respectively. With the aim of developing a tool for pesticide biodegradation, four flow rates (0.936, 1.41, 2.19, and 3.51 l/h) and four hydraulic residence times (0.313, 0.206, 0.133, and 0.083 h) were evaluated in a TPUFR. In the bioreactor, with an operating time of 8 h and a flow of 0.936 l/h, we obtained 75% efficiency in the removal of methyl-parathion and tetrachlorvinphos. Their adsorptions in the volcanic rock were 9% and 6%, respectively. It was demonstrated that the removal of pesticides was due to the biological activity of the immobilized bacterial consortium. We confirmed the decrease in toxicity in the treated effluent from the bioreactor through the application of acute toxicity tests on Eisenia foetida. Immobilization of a bacterial consortium using tezontle as a support is innovative and an economical tool for the treatment of mixtures of organophosphorus pesticide residues.

In this work, two agro-industrial wastes, namely Waste Cooking Oil (WCO) and Coffee Wastewater (CW) have been used as the carbon source for the production of biosurfactants, due to their low cost and high availability. Biosurfactant-producing bacterial isolates from the Mexican state of Chiapas were used. The selected biosurfactant-producer strains were evaluated in a liquid medium with 2% (v/v) of WCO as the carbon source. The assay was conducted in an Erlenmeyer flask containing 300 mL aliquots of mineral salt media (MSM) + residue and incubated at 100 rpm at room temperature for 96 hours. The biosurfactant produced in the samples reduced the surface tension from 50 to 30-29 mN/m. Strains A and 83 showed the maximum emulsification index at 58-59%. Strain A showed the highest biosurfactant yield with a production of 3.7 g/L in comparison with strains B, 83 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853. Our results suggest that the biosurfactant produced by strain A has great potential in the treatment of wastewater with a high content of fatty acids, and of soils contaminated by pesticides or oil hydrocarbons.

The capacity of four bacterial strains isolated from productive soil potato fields to solubilize tricalcium phosphate on Pikovskaya agar or in a liquid medium was evaluated. A bacterial strain was selected to evaluate in vitro capacity of plant-growth promotion on Solanum tuberosum L. culture. Bacterial strain A3 showed the highest value of phosphate solubilization, reaching a 20 mm-diameter halo and a concentration of 350 mg/l on agar and in a liquid medium, respectively. Bacterial strain A3 was identified by 16S rDNA analysis as Bacillus pumilus with 98% identity; therefore, it is the first report for Bacillus pumilus as phosphate solubilizer. Plant-growth promotion assayed by in vitro culture of potato microplants showed that the addition of bacterial strain A3 increased root and stems length after 28 days. It significantly increased stem length by 79.3%, and duplicated the fresh weight of control microplants. In this paper, results reported regarding phosphorus solubilization and growth promotion under in vitro conditions represent a step forward in the use of innocuous bacterial strain biofertilizer on potato field cultures.

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