Abstract

Pesticides are necessary in agriculture, yet their highly toxic ingredients harm the ecosystem. Due of their toxicity, uncontrolled releases of large quantities of pesticides pollute the environment and provide a larger health risk to plants, animals, and humans. Bacteria are capable of degrading such pollutants and saving our ecosystem. In this work, a bacterial strain was isolated from Shobicron and Vertimec-treated lady's finger soil using enrichment culture. The strain was identified as Burkholderia Cepacia-Like MB-01 based on morphological, physiological, and biochemical traits, as well as phylogenetic analysis of the 16SrRNA sequence. The bacterium grew best at 35 °C with a pH of 7. Furthermore, it was susceptible (S) to Cefepime and Penicillin but intermediate (I) resistant to Carbapenem and Tetracycline and resistant (R) to Ciprofloxacin, Kanamycin, and Gentamycin in an antibiotic sensitivity test. The rate of shobicron and vertimec degradation was measured over a five-day period using Mineral Salt (MS) medium. In its optimum growth condition, shobicron and vertimec degradation rates were determined to be around 76 % and 80 %, respectively. The isolated bacterial strain was found to be capable of detoxifying shobicron and vertimec in the experiment. As a result, the bacterial strain could be exploited as a possible shobicron and vertimec degrader for pesticide bioremediation.

Key words: Degradation, Bacteria, Shobicron, Vertimec, Antibiotic sensitivity