Abstract
Fipronil (C12H4Cl2F6N4OS) is a commonly used insecticide effective against numerous insects and pests. Its immense application poses harmful effects on various non-target organisms as well. Therefore, searching the effective methods for the degradation of fipronil is imperative and logical. In this study, fipronil-degrading bacterial species are isolated and characterized from diverse environments using a culture-dependent method followed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis showed the homology of organisms with Acinetobacter sp., Streptomyces sp., Pseudomonas sp., Agrobacterium sp., Rhodococcus sp., Kocuria sp., Priestia sp., Bacillus sp., Aeromonas sp., and Pantoea sp. The bacterial degradation potential for fipronil was analyzed through high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Incubation-based degradation studies revealed that Pseudomonas sp. and Rhodococcus sp. were found to be the most potent isolates that degraded fipronil at 100 mg L−1 concentration, with removal efficiencies of 85.9 and 83.6%, respectively. Kinetic parameter studies, following the Michaelis-Menten model, also revealed the high degradation efficiency of these isolates. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis revealed fipronil sulfide, benzaldehyde, (phenyl methylene) hydrazone, isomenthone, etc., as major metabolites of fipronil degradation. Overall investigation suggests that native bacterial species isolated from the contaminated environments could be efficiently utilized for the biodegradation of fipronil. The outcome derived from this study has immense significance in formulating an approach for bioremediation of fipronil-contaminated surroundings.
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Data availability
Accession numbers (OP317323 to OP317332, and OP482264) of 16S rRNA nucleotide sequences for eleven bacterial isolates used in this study are available in NCBI gene database.
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Acknowledgements
We are thankful to the Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility (AIRF), JNU, New Delhi, India, for GC–MS analysis.
Funding
This research was financially supported by Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, under Institutions of Eminence (IoE) Scheme No. 6031. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, provided financial assistance in the form of Junior Research Fellowship (Ref. DBTHRDPMU/JRF/BET-20/I/2020/AL/183).
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Anjali Jaiswal: experimentation, data collection and analysis, writing — original draft; Animesh Tripathi: data analysis; Suresh K. Dubey: supervision, conceptualization, writing — review and editing, funding acquisition (April 2022–March 2024).
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11356_2023_29837_MOESM2_ESM.tif
Supplementary file2. FIG S1: GC-MS spectra obtained for biodegradation of fipronil in (a) control sample (b) sample containing strain FIP_A4 and (c) sample containing strain FIP_B3. (TIF 4807 KB)
11356_2023_29837_MOESM3_ESM.tif
Supplementary file3. FIG S2: FTIR spectra obtained for biodegradation of fipronil in (a) control as fipronil (b) degraded sample by strain FIP_A4 (c) degraded sample by strain FIP_B3. (TIF 1739 KB)
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Jaiswal, A., Tripathi, A. & Dubey, S.K. Biodegradation of fipronil: molecular characterization, degradation kinetics, and metabolites. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 106316–106329 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29837-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29837-3