Biodegradation of dicofol by Microbacterium sp. D-2 isolated from pesticide-contaminated agricultural soil

Abstract

Dicofol is an organochlorine insecticide widely used to prevent pests worldwide. Consequently, serious environmen‑tal problems have arisen from the application of dicofol. Bioremediation is an efective solution for dicofol persistence in the environment. In this study, a bacterial strain D-2, identifed to genus Microbacterium, capable of degrading dicofol was isolated from dicofol-contaminated agricultural soil. This represents the frst dicofol degrading bacterium isolated from this genus. Microbacterium sp. D-2 degraded 50 mg/L dicofol within 24 h at a rate of 85.1%. Dicofol was dechlorinated by D-2 and the further degradation metabolite was indentifed as p,p′-dichlorobenzophenone(DCBP). Soils inoculated with Microbacterium sp. D-2 degraded 81.9% of the dicofol, while soils without D-2 only degraded 20.5% of the dicofol present. This fnding suggests that strain D-2 has great potential in bioremediation of dicofolcontaminated soils.