Isolation and characterization of phenol degrading bacteria from Persian Gulf

Phenol and phenol compounds are environmental pollutants present in industrial wastewaters such as, coal tar, oil refineries and petrochemical plants exist. Phenol removal from industrial effluent is extremely important in protection of environment. Recently phenol biodegradation has been considered. Marine bacteria are the most important phenol biodegrader. In this study, the phenol-degrading bacteria from marine environmental samples (soil and water) were isolated from the Persian Gulf. After three passages, the bacterial growth was measured that four bacteria (F6, F10, F13, F16) has the highest rate of growth. Also, these bacteria were able to remove phenol that was measured by absorbance at 272 nm. The hydrophobicity and emulsification activity was measured in all four bacteria. Finally, after a series of biochemical tests, molecular analysis for strong bacteria in degrading phenol, 16S rRNA gene region amplified with primers specific part of the gene was performed. The sequence result of the gene bank and the highest homology (greater than 98%) were identified as species of bacteria. Genus of isolated bacteria was belonging to Nitratireductor aquimarinus, Nitratireductor aquimarius, Marine bacterium, Pseudomonas stutzeri.