BIODEGRADATION AND RAPID REMOVAL OF DIMETHOATE BY CYANOBACTERIA

Abstract

Mainly pesticide pollution is a serious environmental problem and their remediation is necessary therefore cyanobacteria are used as removal contamination agent. In this study cyanobacteria were used to their growth and utilization of organophosphorus pesticide dimethoate as phosphorus source. These cyanobacteria belong to filamentous heterocystus genera. A sharp decrease in the growth of the cyanobacterial isolate was observed by increasing the concentration of dimethoate. Amongst them Nostoc tolerated different concentrations and was recorded as the highest efficient isolate are tolerate of this compound. Moreover, protein content of their cells overtopped the other isolates especially at higher concentrations. The cyanobacterial isolate was further subjected to grow in the absence of phosphorus and presence of dimethoate. Although, the cyanobacterial growth absence phosphorus recorded at very poor level, a massive enhanced growth and phosphorous content of cells were obtained when the dimethoate amended with media. Capabilities of Nostoc species to use dimethoate as sole phosphorous is considerably a cheaper and efficient tool for remediation of organophosphorus pesticides from contaminated agriculture soil which is clearly indicated from the above study.