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Surfactant mediated enhanced biodegradation of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers by Sphingomonas sp. NM05

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Abstract

Environmental biodegradation of several chlorinated pesticides is limited by their low solubility and sorption to soil surfaces. To mitigate this problem we quantified the effect of three biosurfactant viz., rhamnolipid, sophorolipid and trehalose-containing lipid on the dissolution, bioavailability, and biodegradation of HCH-isomers in liquid culture and in contaminated soil. The effect of biosurfactants was evaluated through the critical micelle concentration (CMC) value as determined for each isomer. The surfactant increased the solubilization of HCH isomers by 3–9folds with rhamnolipid and sophorolipid being more effective and showing maximum solubilization of HCH isomers at 40 μg/mL, compared to trehalose-containing lipid showing peak solubilization at 60 μg/mL. The degradation of HCH isomers by Sphingomonas sp. NM05 in surfactant-amended liquid mineral salts medium showed 30% enhancement in 2 days as compared to degradation in 10 days in the absence of surfactant. HCH-spiked soil slurry incubated with surfactant also showed around 30–50% enhanced degradation of HCH which was comparable to the corresponding batch culture experiments. Among the three surfactants, sophorolipid offered highest solubilization and enhanced degradation of HCH isomers both in liquid medium and soil culture. The results of this study suggest the effectiveness of surfactants in improving HCH degradation by increased bioaccessibility.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Stefan Kaschabek, Department of Environmental Microbiology, Technical University-Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany, for his generous gift of biosurfactants. Dr. Deepak Agarwal, Former Scientist at Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India is appreciated for his valuable suggestions and critical reading of the manuscript. This manuscript carries IITR communication number 2956.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), Lucknow, 226 001, India

    Natesan Manickam & Abhay Bajaj

  2. Environmental Microbiology, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), Lucknow, 226 001, India

    Rishi Shanker

  3. Department of Microbiology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 143005, Punjab, India

    Harvinder S. Saini

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  1. Natesan Manickam
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  2. Abhay Bajaj
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  3. Harvinder S. Saini
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  4. Rishi Shanker
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Correspondence to Natesan Manickam.

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Manickam, N., Bajaj, A., Saini, H.S. et al. Surfactant mediated enhanced biodegradation of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers by Sphingomonas sp. NM05. Biodegradation 23, 673–682 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-012-9543-z

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