Isolation and Identification of Bacteria Isolated From Soil That Can Degrade 3-Chloropropionic Acid

Abstract

3-Chloropropionic acid (3-CP) belongs to the class of chlorinated monocarboxylic acid or β-chloro substituted haloalkanoic acid. However, it can be degraded into harmless substances by using both nonbiological and biological pathways. For that particular reason, it will be interesting to investigate and study by isolation and identifcation a bacterial strain that could degrade 3-CP as its sole carbon source. A strain of dehalogenase producing bacteria capable of utilizing 3-CP was successfully isolated from soil sample of abandoned agricultural land. This bacterium was characterized by using 16S rRNA, current results of MEGA6 phylogenetic also supported the strain belongs to Pseudomonas sp. WH3 as well as biochemical analysis confrmed that the strain WH3 was Pseudomonas sp. so the characterization of the biochemical properties and 3-CP dehalogenation effciency of the isolated microorganisms were successfully carried out. The bacteria grew well at 37°C in media containing 10 mM 3-CP but exhibited a rather slow doubling time of 20 h, utilization of 3-CP was confrmed by detection of chloride ion released using halide ion assay technique for the strain which indicate their ability to degrade 3-CP. with an optimum chloride ion release 0.186 Jmol Cl−/mL. Strain WH3showed a 99% sequence identity to Pseudomonas sp.