Characterization of deltamethrin degradation and metabolic pathway by co-culture of Acinetobacter junii LH-1-1 and Klebsiella pneumoniae BPBA052

Deltamethrin and its major metabolite 3‐phenoxybenzoic acid (3‐PBA) have caused serious threat to the environment as well as human health, yet little is known about their degradation pathways by bacterial co-cultures. In this study, the growth and degradation kinetics of Acinetobacter junii LH-1-1 and Klebsiella pneumoniae BPBA052 during deltamethrin and 3-PBA degradation were established, respectively. When the inoculum proportion of the strains LH-1-1 and BPBA052 was 7.5:2.5, and LH-1-1 was inoculated 24 h before inoculation of strain BPBA052, 94.25% deltamethrin was degraded and 9.16 mg/L of 3-PBA remained within 72 h, which was 20.36% higher and 10.25 mg/L lesser than that in monoculture of LH-1-1, respectively. And the half-life of deltamethrin was shortened from 38.40 h to 24.58 h. Based on gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, 3-phenoxybenzaldehyde, 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic butyl dacyl ester, and phenol were identified as metabolites during deltamethrin degradation in co-culture. This is the first time that a co-culture degradation pathway of deltamethrin has been proposed based on these identified metabolites. Bioremediation of deltamethrin-contaminated soils with co-culture of strains LH-1-1 and BPBA052 significantly enhanced deltamethrin degradation and 3-PBA removal. This study provides a platform for further studies on deltamethrin and 3-PBA biodegradation mechanism in co-culture, and it also proposes a promising approach for efficient bioremediation of environment contaminated by pyrethroid pesticides and their associated metabolites.