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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiotechnology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1462912

Unveiling Six Novel Bacterial Strains for Fipronil and Thiobencarb Biodegradation: Efficacy, Metabolic Pathways, and Bioaugmentation Potential in Paddy Soil

Provisionally accepted
Nastaran Faridy Nastaran Faridy Ehssan Torabi Ehssan Torabi *Ahmad Ali Pourbabaee Ahmad Ali Pourbabaee Ebrahim Osdaghi Ebrahim Osdaghi Khalil Talebi Khalil Talebi
  • University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Soil bacteria offer a promising approach to bioremediate pesticide contamination in agricultural ecosystems. This study investigated the potential of bacteria isolated from rice paddy soil for bioremediating fipronil and thiobencarb, common agricultural pesticides. Six strains, including both single isolates and their mixture, efficiently degraded these pesticides at high concentrations (up to 800 µg/mL). Enterobacter sp., Brucella sp. (alone and combined), and a mixture of Stenotrophomonas sp., Bordetella sp., and Citrobacter sp.effectively degraded fipronil and thiobencarb, respectively. Notably, a single Pseudomonas sp. strain degraded a mixture of both pesticides. Optimal degradation conditions were identified as a slightly acidic pH (6-7), moderate pesticide concentrations (20-50 µg/mL), and a specific inoculum size. Bioaugmentation assays in real-world paddy soils (sterile/nonsterile, varying moisture) demonstrated that these bacteria significantly increased degradation rates (up to 14.15-fold for fipronil and 5.13-fold for thiobencarb). The study identifies these novel bacterial strains as promising tools for bioremediation and bioaugmentation strategies to tackle fipronil and thiobencarb contamination in paddy ecosystems.

    Keywords: pesticide, Bacteria, transformation products, Response Surface Methodology, Degradation rate, bioremediation

    Received: 10 Jul 2024; Accepted: 09 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Faridy, Torabi, Pourbabaee, Osdaghi and Talebi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ehssan Torabi, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.