Abstract
Bioremediation using microbes is an eco-friendly approach being explored for reclaiming PAH-contaminated areas. However, isolation and screening of potential bacteria to degrade PAHs are very laborious and cumbersome. To alleviate this issue, we describe a rapid method for screening the bacterial cultures for their ability to degrade PAHs using Folin-Ciocalteu (FC) assay. Six hundred bacterial isolates were tested for their ability to degrade PAH using FC assay. The cultures capable of degrading PAH show blue colouration, resulting from the reaction of FC reagent with phenolic intermediates generated during PAH degradation. Out of the 600 cultures screened, 64 showed an ability to degrade PAH. This study provides a very easy, rapid, less laborious, and sensitive method to screen a large number of bacterial cultures for their ability to degrade PAH.
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Data generated during this study will be made available on request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the Director CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography for providing all the facilities and infrastructure required to carry out this work. We acknowledge the funding received from DBT, Govt. of India, under the project GAP3297. The first author is thankful to CSIR for her Research Fellowship (18/12/2016(ii) EU-V). The work is part of the doctoral thesis of the first author to be submitted to Goa University. The authors appreciate the critical suggestions received from anonymous reviewers that helped in improving the manuscript. This is NIO contribution no….
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The corresponding author planned the work. The first author carried out all the experimental work. The first and last authors carried out the GCMS analysis. All the authors contributed to writing the manuscript.
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Bhatawadekar, V.C., Damare, S.R. & Garg, A. Folin-Ciocalteu assay as a rapid colourimetric screening method for evaluating PAH degradation abilities of heterotrophic bacteria. 3 Biotech 13, 144 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-023-03549-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-023-03549-4