Pentachlorophenol Biodegradation by Citrobacter freundii Isolated from Forest Contaminated Soil

Environmental pollution by pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a critical concern worldwide, and microbial bioremediation could constitute an ecologically friendly solution. The main objectives of this study were at first to clarify the factors, affecting the ability and efficiency of PCP biodegradation by the bacterium isolate P6, and secondly to optimize the condition of using P6 for PCP bioremediation. The PCP mineralizing bacterium was isolated from the contaminated forest soil of Tunisia, and it was identified as Citrobacter freundii (C. freundii), by using conventional and molecular characteristics. The HPLC and spectroscopic analysis were used to investigate the PCP degradation and the biomass formation by this isolate P6. The main results showed that P6 was able to degrade or to transform more than 98 % of 640 mg/l PCP afterwards 168 h in mineral salt medium (MSM). As well, the optimal aerobic growth conditions of P6 in MSM include essentially the range of pH (4 ≤ pH ≤ 9) and of temperature (25 °C < temperature < 30 °C). The addition of glucose as extra carbon sources has an effect to enhance the PCP biodegradation. On the other side, this isolate of C. freundii is capable to remove or transform around 95.33 % of PCP added in the sterilized soil suspension supplemented with PCP and adjusted to a final concentration of around 400 mg/l during 2 weeks of incubation at 25 °C. This last result argues in favor of the use of this strain P6 of C. freundii as a microbial tool of remediation of PCP-contaminated site.