Author(s)

Wenhao Li^1*, Xiaoqiong Yang^1*, Gaodong Li¹, Cheng Li², Yuhan Xu², Jingguo Sun², Changjun Wang², Shunyi Li², Xin Ma², Qin Wang², Shouwen Chen², Jun Yu², Yong Yang²

¹College of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, China.
²Tobacco Research Institute of Hubei Province, Wuhan, China.

O-phthalic acid is a kind of important pollutant, which accumulates in the environment with the extensive use of plastics and other products. Meanwhile, phthalic acid is one of the high content of allelopathic autotoxic substances secreted by tobacco. The accumulation of phthalic acid in soil is an important cause of tobacco continuous cropping effect. In order to degrade phthalic acid accumulated in environment, the barrier effect of tobacco continuous cropping caused by phthalic acid accumulation in soil can be removed. A strain capable of degrading phthalic acid was isolated from sludge of sewage treatment plant and compared with 16 s DNA. The homology between this strain and Enterobacter sp. is 99%. The optimum growth conditions are as follows: pH7 at 30°C, 500 mg/L of o-phthalic acid, inoculation concentration ≥ 1.2% and its highest degradation rate of o-phthalic acid is 74%. The results of pot experiment showed that the degradation efficiency of o-phthalic acid in soil was about 40%, which alleviated the inhibitory effect of o-phthalic acid accumulation on tobacco growth.

O-Phthalic Acid, Allelopathic Autotoxic Substance, Tobacco

Li, W. , Yang, X. , Li, G. , Li, C. , Xu, Y. , Sun, J. , Wang, C. , Li, S. , Ma, X. , Wang, Q. , Chen, S. , Yu, J. and Yang, Y. (2018) Screening and Application of Phthalic Acid Degrading Bacteria. Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 8, 586-597. doi: 10.4236/ojapps.2018.812047.