Organophosphorus compounds biodegradation by novel bacterial isolates and their potential application in bioremediation of contaminated water

Organophosphorus compounds (OPs), the major pesticides used worldwide, comprise an environmental hazard due to their harmful toxicity. Aimed to develop a bioreactor to remediate OPs contaminated wastewater, bacteria isolated from contaminated soils were identified and their ability to degrade OPs assessed, resulting in two main isolates, Sphingomonas sp. and Brevundimonas sp. Their OP degrading activities were characterized in terms of temperature, pH and substrates acceptance, resulting in high degradation rates at 60 degrees C, pH 10 and towards bulky OPs such as coroxon, coumaphos, and chlorpyrifos. Sphingomonas sp. cells were immobilized and 75.4% degradation of 0.15 mM chlorpyrifos was achieved after 21 days by immobilized cells in batch system, while this OP was completely degraded within 17 h when the biocatalyst is settled in a packed bed bioreactor, with a reusability of 8 cycles. These results suggest the potential application of this system in the bioremediation of contaminated wastewater.