Biodegradation of lindane using a novel yeast strain, Rhodotorula sp. VITJzN03 isolated from agricultural soil

Abstract

Lindane is a notorious organochlorine pesticide due to its high toxicity, persistence in the environment and its tendency to bioaccumulate. A yeast strain isolated from sorghum cultivation field was able to use lindane as carbon and energy source under aerobic conditions. With molecular techniques, it was identified and named as Rhodotorula strain VITJzN03. The effects of nutritional and environmental factors on yeast growth and the biodegradation of lindane was investigated. The maximum production of yeast biomass along with 100 % lindane mineralization was noted at an initial lindane concentration of 600 mg l(-1) within a period of 10 days. Lindane concentration above 600 mg l(-1) inhibited the growth of yeast in liquid medium. A positive relationship was noted between the release of chloride ions and the increase of yeast biomass as well as degradation of lindane. The calculated degradation rate and half life of lindane were found to be 0.416 day(-1) and 1.66 days, respectively. The analysis of the metabolites using GC-MS identified the formation of seven intermediates including γ-pentachlorocyclohexane(γ-PCCH), 1,3,4,6-tetrachloro-1,4-cyclohexadiene(1,4-TCCHdiene), 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (1,2,4 TCB), 1,4-dichlorobenzene (1,4 DCB), chloro-cis-1,2-dihydroxycyclohexadiene (CDCHdiene), 3-chlorocatechol (3-CC) and maleylacetate (MA) derivatives indicating that lindane degradation follows successive dechlorination and oxido-reduction. Based on the results of the present study, the possible pathway for lindane degradation by Rhodotorula sp. VITJzN03 has been proposed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on lindane degradation by yeast which can serve as a potential agent for in situ bioremediation of medium to high level lindane-contaminated sites.

Degradation study of lindane by novel strains Kocuria sp. DAB-1Y and Staphylococcus sp. DAB-1W

“…Potential lindane-degrading microorganisms reported in other research were mostly from genera Pseudomonas, Sphingobium, Streptomyces, Fusarium (Salam et al 2013), and K. rhizophila, Microbacterium resistens, Staphylococcus equorium, Staphylococcous cohnii subsp. urelyticus (Abhilash et al 2011) and Bacillus brevis and Bacillus circulans isolated from HCH-contaminated soil (Gupta et al 2000).…”

“…1c) Similar lindane degradation zones were observed for bacterium Pseudomonas paucimobilis (Senoo and Wada 1989), fungus Conidiobolus 03-1-56 by (Nagpal et al 2008), and for yeast Rhodotorula sp. VITJzNo3 (Salam et al 2013). The clear halo zones also appeared on agar plates containing precipitated γ-HCH around colonies of lindane-degrading isolates reported by Thomas et al (1996).…”

“…The incubation temperature of 30 °C has been found as optimum temperature for lindane degradation (Zhang et al 2010, 2012; Salam et al 2013). However, rapid degradation of lindane by Sphingobium strains has been reported by Zheng et al (2011) even at low temperature (4 °C) indicating that lindane degradation could be achieved even in colder contaminated regions.…”

“…urelyticus (Abhilash et al 2011) and Bacillus brevis and Bacillus circulans isolated from HCH-contaminated soil (Gupta et al 2000). Salam et al (2013) isolated a novel yeast strain from sugarcane field, and this has found the ability to use lindane as sole carbon source in the mineral salt medium. The yeast strain was identified and named as Candida sp.…”

Conditions and Mechanisms in Thiocyanate Biodegradation

“…This phenomenon was attributed to substrate limitation at 50 mg PNP L -1 . More recently, Salam and Lakshmi [21] investigated the biodegradation of lindane using Rhodotorula sp. and checked the effect of the initial inoculum size (10-90 mg dry cell weight L -1 ) on the contaminant degradation.…”