Phytoremediation of PAH compounds by microbial communities in sodic soil

Abstract

The PAH degrading microbial consortium was collected from sodic soil of the nursery of Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Haryana (India). And the soil was artificially amended with phenanthrene and naphthalene to isolate the PAHs degrading microbial consortium. The diversity of microbial consortium was analyzed using the NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) based metagenomic approach. The result of diversity analysis showed species Tepidanaerobacter syntrophicus, Sphingomonas oliophenolica, Arthrobacter psychrochitinipnius, Bifidobacterium bombi, Nocardiodies islandensis, Rhodovibrio sodomensis, Thiorhodococus pfennigii, Aeromicrobium ponti, Steroidobacter dentrificans, Actinomaduria maheshkhaliensis, Dactylosporangium maewongense, Pelotomaculum isophthalicicum, and Nocardioides islandensis were present in the consortium. Moreover, Sphingomonas, Arthrobacter, Sphingobium, Azospirillium, Thirohodococcus, and Pelotomaculum were the prominent pollutant degrader genera in the microbial consortium. Since the bioremediation of these pollutants occurs with a significant reduction in toxicity, the study’s perspective is to use this type of consortium for bioremediation of specifically contaminated soil.

NOVELTY STATEMENT

The present work’s novelty was to find the helpful microbial consortium for the bioremediation of toxic compounds such as naphthalene and phenanthrene. In this study, the degradation of such compounds was done by the various communities of genera like Bifidobacterium, Conexibacter, Sterodobacter, Rhodovibrio, Arthrobacter, Actinomadura, and Euzebya, which are rarely described in the earlier researches. Therefore, this study will enhance the quality of future research.

Keywords:

• Arthrobacter
• Azospirillium
• Biodegradation
• naphthalene
• Pelotomaculum
• phenanthrene
• soil
• Sphingobium
• Sphingomonas
• Thirohodococcus

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges UGC, DST/INT/UK R/P-14/2015, and SAP-DRS-II for financial assistance in the form of fellowship and project.

Authors’ contributions

Mrs. Ruchi Urana performed the experimental work in the laboratory. Mrs. Ruchi Urana and Mrs. Jyoti Yadav helped with data collection. Mr. Suryakant Panchal contributed by submitting the metagenomic data to the NCBI database. Prof. Namita Singh and Prof. Praveen Sharma planned the experiment, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The supplementary metagenomic data related to the consortia NS-NHE-PHE-2016-C (BioProject: PRJNA656705, BioSample: SAMN15796635, SRA: SRR12550376), NS-NHE-2016-S-1 (BioProject: PRJNA656712, BioSample: SAMN15795438, SRA: SRR12550375), NS-NHE-PGPR-2016-S2 (BioProject: PRJNA656688, BioSample: SAMN15805811, SRA: SRR12550379), NS-PHE-PGPR-2016-S3 (BioProject: PRJNA656696, BioSample: SAMN15795640, SRA: SRR12550378), and NS-PHE-2016-S4 (BioProject: PRJNA656711, BioSample: SAMN15795876, SRA: SRR12550377) can be retrieved online from the NCBI.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (RGNF), University Grant Commission (UGC), Project of [DST/INT/UK/P-14/2015], and SAP DRS-II.