ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Kalaivani Nadarajah and Tan Shi Tian
1School of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM, Bangi Selangor, Malaysia.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2013;7(2):881-890
© The Author(s). 2013
Received: 11/01/2013 | Accepted: 02/02/2013 | Published: 30/06/2013
Abstract

This research involves the isolation, identification, determination of bacterial growth, degradation rate and enzyme activity of catechol dioxygenase in bacteria. Eight bacteria were isolated from 3 locations: the oxidation pool, refinery pool and soil at the PETRONAS Oil Refinery Plant in Kerteh, Terengganu, Malaysia. Out of the eight isolated bacteria, seven were Gram negative and one Gram positive, bacilli. Two bacteria were chosen based on correlation from the screening results of spread plate method and optical density method. Both bacteria were identified as Pseudomonas pickettii (88.3%) and Agrobacterium radiobacter (99.8%) via the API Kit 20NE. Based on the growth profile of bacteria, the growth rate of A.radiobacter was higher than P. pickettii, with 0.045 h¹ compared to 0.011 h¹. A.radiobacter showed higher degradation rate than P.pickettii, with 1.037 mgL¹ h¹ for A.radiobacter and 0.910 mgL¹h¹ for P.pickettii. Enzyme assay of catechol 1,2-dioxygenase and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase was conducted on both bacteria and the result was a higher enzyme activity in A.radiobacter than P.pickettii. Enzyme activity and specific activity of catechol 1,2-dioxygenase in A.radiobacter was 0.085 µmol min¹ mL¹ and 0.167 µmol min¹ mg¹ respectively while P. pickettii was 0.042 µmol
min¹ mL¹ and 0.115 µmol min¹ mg¹. Enzyme activity and specific activity of catechol 2,3-dioxygenase in A.radiobacter was 0.002 µmol min¹ mL¹ and 0.004 µmol min¹ mg¹ respectively while P. pickettii was 0.001 µmol min¹ mL¹ and 0.003 µmol min¹ mg¹. The overall results of this study showed that A.radiobacter is a better candidate of the two bacteria in degrading catechol.

Keywords

Catechol, Agrobacterium, Pseudomonas, Catechol dioxygenase

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