Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are highly persistent compounds as well as
they have a toxic impact to all living organisms. Removal of these xenobiotic compounds
by mixed bacteria is achieving a maximum degradation rate over the pure strains.
So, this study substantiates the application of constructed bacterial consortium for
degradation of 400 mg/L phenanthrene within 30 days of incubation at 30 ◦C. The
consortium consisted of two bacterial species Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes (B1) and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (B2). It exhibited a significantly higher phenanthrene degradation
efficiency (97.5%) compared to pure strains B1 and B2 (52.5 and 47.6%), respectively.
The phenanthrene degradation rate by the individual strains was enhanced in the
presence of salicylic and phthalic acids as intermediates pathway. On the other side,
the degradation rate was reduced in the presence of catechol suggesting a feedback
inhibition of catabolic enzymes. The ring-cleavage dioxygenases were induced in all
treatments. However, the induction of ortho cleavage dioxygenase (2.44 U/mg protein)
was higher than meta cleavage dioxygenase (0.42 U/mg protein). Six main metabolites
were detected by GC–MS analysis. Among them, four metabolites were detected in the
extract of phenanthrene growing consortium suggesting three main pathways, phthalate,
salicylic and benzocoumarin by the constructed consortium. Therefore, this study
provides a measuring of phenanthrene degradation efficacy by bacterial consortium and
paved the way to increase the potential of using the consortium for successful removal
of PAHs from the polluted environment