Isolation and Characterization of a Bacterial Strain Enterobacter cloacae (Accession No. KX438060.1) Capable of Degrading DDTs Under Aerobic Conditions and Its Use in Bioremediation of Contaminated Soil

DDT is one of the most persistent pesticides among all the different types of organo-chlorine pesticides used. Among all the degradation methods, bacterial degradation of DDT is most effective. The present study was conducted to isolate different bacteria present in waste samples which have the ability to degrade DDT present in the soil in the minimum possible period of time and to observe the effect of different physical and chemical properties of the soil samples. Many pesticide degrading bacteria were isolated and identified through cultural, biochemical tests and further identified by 16S RNA sequencing method. The most potent strain DDT 1 growth in mineral salt medium supplemented with DDT as the only source of carbon (5-100 PPM) and was monitored at an optical density of 600 nm. The growth parameters at different physio-chemical conditions were further optimized. The result showed that Enterobacter cloacae had maximum growth in 15 days. FTIR analysis of the residual DDT after 15 days incubation showed that Enterobacter cloacae was able to degrade pesticide into its further metabolites of DDD, DDE, DDNU and other components can be used for biodegradation of DDT present in contaminated soil and water ecosystems.