Isolation of genomic and plasmid dna of selected phenol degrading bacteria from industrial effluent treatment plants

With the immense growth of industries, major problem is encountered as contamination of the environment with hazardous and toxic chemicals. Phenolics, one of the major pollutants, are discharged in the waste water from the various industries such as phenolic resin and pharmaceuticals, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, ceramic plants, steel plants, and coal conversion processes. Due to the toxic properties, including permeabilisation of cellular membranes and cytoplasm coagulation, phenolic contaminants can damage sensitive cells and cause profound health and environmental problems. The main objective of this study was to isolate the genomic and plasmid DNA from selected potent phenol degrading bacteria from the effluent treatment plants of textile and petrochemical industries. Total 10 strains were isolated from both the samples and out of that four potent strains from both the samples were used for the isolation of genomic and plasmid DNA. They were Neisseria sp and Micrococcus sp from petrochemical effluent and Micrococcus sp and Pseudomonas sp from textile effluent as they are found to be the most potent among the selected strains. They gave maximum degradation potential in the medium with 800 ppm phenol. From the results, it was clear that strain 1 contained a clear band of 700 bp. Strain 2, 3 and 4 showed a feeble band at 1200 bp position. The plasmid DNA content was relatively less in 3 strains and almost absent in one strain. As a future perspective, the plasmid DNA can be removed from the strains and those without plasmid can be used to study the degradation potential of selected strains using the same effluent so as to investigate the plasmid mediated degradation.