Effect of yeast extract on the degradation of organophosphorus insecticides by soil enrichment and bacterial cultures

Soil enrichment cultures were prepared by repeated additions of methyl parathion to flooded alluvial and laterite soils incubated at 35 °C. These cultures were tested for their ability to degrade methyl parathion in a mineral salts medium in the presence and absence of yeast extract. Addition of yeast extract (0.05% w/v) accelerated the degradation of methyl parathion by both enriched cultures. Methyl parathion was degraded by the enrichment culture from alluvial soil essentially by hydrolysis in the absence of yeast extract and by nitro group reduction in its presence. The enrichment culture from laterite soil degraded methyl parathion (by hydrolysis) only in the presence of yeast extract. A Bacillus sp., isolated from laterite soil, degraded methyl parathion essentially by hydrolysis in the presence of a concentration (w/v) of yeast extract of 0.05%, by both hydrolysis and nitro group reduction at 0.1 and 0.25%, and exclusively by nitro group reduction at 0.5%. A similar trend was also noticed with parathion. However, fenitrothion was degraded by Bacillus sp. mainly by hydrolysis at all concentrations of yeast extract, whereas diazinon was not degraded.Key words: organophosphorothioates, biodegradation, yeast extract dependent pathway.