Biodegradation of anthracene by a newly isolated bacterial strain, Bacillus thuringiensis AT.ISM.1 isolated from a fly ash deposition site

Current study is aimed to evaluate the mechanism of anthracene degradation by a bacterial strain isolated from fly ash deposition site near Jamadoba Coal Preparation Plant, Jharkhand, India. The Bushnell-Haas media cultured (containing anthracene as sole carbon source) bacterial isolate was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence coding as the Bacillus thuringiensis strain, which showed the efficiency to degrade anthracene. The degradation efficiency of the strain has been estimated around 91% (for 40 mgL−1 of anthracene concentration) after two weeks of incubation period at temperature 33-36°C and initial pH of 6.8-7. The growth kinetics of the isolated strain has been described well by Haldane-Andrews model for microbial growth pattern for inhibitory substrate, with a correlation factor (R2 value) of 0.9790. The maximum specific growth rate (μmax) was 0.01053 h−1 and the value of inhibition coefficient (Ki) for Haldane model was specified as 18.2448 mgL−1. In the present study, some diphenol metabolites were identified beside the known possible biodegradation products. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.