Characterization and Identification of Phenol Degrading Bacteria Isolated from Industrial Waste Water in Oran (Algeria)

Abstract

Phenol is the major organic pollutant present in industrial waste water. Phe-nol biodegradation is the most efficient and cost-effective pollutants degra-dation technologies, it can also ensure a completely degradation of phenol on non toxic products .In this research our objective is to isolate a new bac-terial strains with the ability of degrading phenol at high concentrations. Four phenol-degrading bacterium strain were successfully isolated from the effluent of industrial wastewater collected from Telamine Lake in the indus-trial area in Oran. Based on their morphological, physiological and biochemi-cal characteristics, all the strains were characterized as a Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, no motile and short rod-shaped bacterium that utilize phe-nol as a sole carbon and energy source. 16S rRNA sequence analysis revealed that these strains ENP, ENP2, ENP3 and ENP4 were affiliated to Pseudomo-nas putida, Pseudomonas sp, Raoultella ornithinolytica and Klebisella Sp re-spectively in the group of Gammaproteo bacteria. All the strains were effi-cient in removing 99% of the initial 750 mg/L of phenol within 72 h and had a tolerance of phenol concentration as high as 1000 mg/L of phenol. Analysis of the gene of the largest subunit of the multi-component phenol hydrox-ylase (LmPH) in each isolate showed the presence of this one in all isolate and only the strains ENP1 and ENP2 had the Catechol 2,3-dioxygenases gene (C230). These results indicated that the strains ENP1, ENP2, ENP3 and ENP4 can be exploited for bioremediation of phenol.