Identification and degradation characteristics of Bacillus cereus strain WD-2 isolated from prochloraz-manganese-contaminated soils

The bacterial strain WD-2, which was capable of efficiently degrading prochloraz-manganese, was isolated from soil contaminated with prochloraz-manganese, selected through enrichment culturing and identified as Bacillus cereus. Test results indicated that the optimal temperature and pH for bacterial growth were 35–40°C and 7.0–8.0, respectively. The highest degradation rate was above 88–90% when the pH was 7.0~8.0 and reached a maximum value (90.7%) at approximately 8.0. In addition, the bacterium showed the greatest growth ability with an OD(600) of 0.805 and the highest degradation rate (68.2%) when glucose was chosen as the carbon source, while the difference in nitrogen source had no obvious influence on bacterial growth. The degradation rate exceeded 80% when the NaCl concentration was 0~2% and the rate reached 89.2% at 1%. When the concentration was higher than 7%, the growth of WD-2 and the degradation of prochloraz-manganese were found to be inhibited, and the degradation rate was merely 8.5%. The results indicated that strain WD-2 was able to effectively degrade prochloraz-manganese and might contribute to the bioremediation of contaminated soils.