TITLE:
Isolation and Biological Characterization of Tributyltin Degrading Bacterial from Onne Port Sediment
AUTHORS:
Esther Ebah, Tersagh Ichor, Gideon C. Okpokwasili
KEYWORDS:
Organotin, Tributyltin, Degradation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Marine Science,
Vol.6 No.2,
March
3,
2016
ABSTRACT: Marine sediments collected
from Onne Port, Rivers State Nigeria were manually polluted with tributyltin
chloride (TBTCl) to evaluate the abilities of bacterial isolates to degrade the
pollutant. Bacterial isolates were screened with at varying concentrations of 3
mM, 5 mM, 7 mM, and 10 mM. Bacterial strains with outstanding capabilities of
utilizing TBTCl were biochemically and molecularly characterized. The total
bacterial counts varied from 42 × 102to 64.4 × 102cfu/g when plated on MSA only and the
viable counts on MSA to 3 mM TBTCl and MSA + 5 mM TBTCl ranged from 22 × 101to 38.5 × 102cfu/g and 18 × 101from 21.9 × 101cfu/g respectively; however, the total
viable count in MSA + 10 mM TBTCl ranged from 1.1 × 101- 3.8 × 101cfu/g. Statistically, total bacterial
count varied significantly across the sample sites p Pseudomonas aeruginosa,andPseudomonas fluorescens.The 16 SrRNA sequence phylogenetic
analysis using BLAST program showed that the isolates were proteobacteria.
Since there are scanty works on the mechanisms of the degradation of organotin,
it is then important that isolates that can tolerate organotin to a large
extent can be used in the cleanup of organotin-contaminated site.Pseudomonas aeuroginosaandPseudomonas
fluorescensare candidates
for the bioremediation of the contaminated site.