ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION & PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF PHTHALIC ACID DEGRADING BACTERIA

Phthalic acid is a precursor used in the manufacture of phthalate esters, which are used principally as plasticizers in plasticized polyvinyl chloride preparation. Phthalate esters make 40% of weight of some plastic materials. Phthalates are commonly found in child rearing products, blood bags, dialysis tubing, paints, lacquers, cosmetics, coating of capsules etc. Phthalates have been shown to be nervous system depressant and stimulators, teratogenic and estrogenic mimics. In the present study, five bacterial strains degrading phthalic acid were isolated using mineral salt media containing phthalic acid as a sole source of carbon. The two isolates showing effective degradation of phthalic acid were tested for the growth and tolerance limit on different concentrations (50-3100 ppm) of phthalic acid in mineral salt medium with and without glucose & were used for further study. These were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain HNYM41 and Bacillus cereus strain BVC11.