Isolation and molecular identification of biodegrading Mycobacteria from water supplies of Iranian hospitals

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Some microorganisms, mainly members of two genera including Pseudomonas and Mycobacterium, were found to be capable of transforming and degrading of polluting agents. We herein report the isolation of a few mycobacteria with the ability to biodegrade organic and inorganic compounds from water supplies of Iranian hospitals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The water samples were collected from hospital water supplies. Isolation processes were done according to standard methods. The colonies were subcultured on Löwenstein-Jensen medium to obtain a pure culture. The identification and characterization of the isolates were based on conventional and molecular methods including direct sequence analysis of almost full length of 16S rRNA gene. RESULTS: The almost complete 16S rRNA gene sequences of the studied strains revealed that the isolates WP16, AW18-1 and AW18-3 were identified as M. fredriksbergense, AW18-2 as M. austroafricanum, AW27-2 as M. obuenseand AW27-6 as M. phocaicum.The relationship between our isolates and standard strains of Mycobacterium was supported by a phylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA gene. CONCLUSION: In the current study we were able to isolate and characterize six mycobacteria with capability of transforming and degrading polluting agents from Iranian hospital environments. This is indeed the first report on isolation and characterization of mycobacteria with degrading capability of polluting agents from Iranian hospitals. It can be considered as a pioneer study to open up a new horizon in the study of microbial diversity in Iran with an objective-based and applied approach to tackle environmental challenges.