Isolation of a strain of Pseudomonas putida capable of metabolizing anionic detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)

Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) is one of the most widely used anionic detergents. The present study deals with isolation and identification of SDS-degrading bacteria from a detergent contaminated pond situated in Varanasi city, India.

Employing enrichment technique in minimal medium (PBM), SDS-degrading bacteria were isolated from pond water sample. Rate of degradation of SDS was studied in liquid PBM and also degradation of different concentrations of SDS was also studied to find out maximum concentration of SDS degraded by the potent isolates. Alkyl sulfatase activity (key enzyme in SDS degradation) was estimated in crude cell extracts and multiplicity of alkyl sulfatase was studied by Native PAGE Zymography. The potent isolate was identified by 16S rRNA sequence analysis.

Using enrichment technique in minimal medium containing SDS as a sole carbon source, initially three SDS degrading isolates were recovered. However, only one isolate, SP3, was found to be an efficient degrader of SDS. It was observed that this strain could completely metabolize 0.1% SDS in 16 h, 0.2% SDS in 20 h and 0.3% SDS in 24 h of incubation. Specific activity of alkyl sulfatase was 0.087±0.004 µmol SDS/mg protein/min and Native PAGE Zymography showed presence of alkyl sulfatase of Rf value of 0.21. This isolate was identified as Pseudomonas putida strain SP3.

This is the report of isolation of SDS-degrading strain of P. putida, which shows high rate of SDS degradation and can degrade up to 0.3% SDS. It appears that this isolate can be exploited for bioremediation of this detergent from water systems.