Quantification of polyphenols during retting and characterization of bacteria from the Kadinamkulam Backwaters, Kerala

The retting environment which provides a competitive niche for specialized microbes is speculated to harbour a variety of microbes with high biodegradation potential. In this context, an effort has been made to isolate and identify bacterial species having high tolerance to phenol In vitro. Maximum polyphenol (1.897 mg l(-1)) as observed during the initial period of retting, which decreased as retting proceeded. Based on biochemical characterization, the isolated bacterial strains were identified as Micrococcus sp., Moraxella sp. strain MP1, Moraxella sp. strain MP2 and Moraxella sp. strain MP3, Pseudomonas sp. strain PP1 and Pseudomonas sp. strain PP2, Amphibacillus sp., Brucella sp. strain BP1 and Brucella sp. strain BP2, Aquaspirillum sp., Escherichia coli strain EP1 and Escherichia coli strain EP2, Campylobacter sp., Aeromonas sp., Neisseria sp., Vibrio sp., Erwinia sp. and Mesophilobacter sp. These strains were found to tolerate maximum concentration of phenol viz. 200 to 1000 mg l(-1). Plasmid analysis of phenol resistant bacterial isolates showed that almost all the cultures had at least one plasmid of size > 1Kb. Studies on the protein profile of isolated bacterial cultures showed the presence of proteins with molecular sizes ranging from 10 to 85 KDa with exception of Mesophilobacter and Neisseria having still high molecular weight protein (95 KDa). Bacterial strains isolated from coir-ret-liquor showed tolerance to high phenol concentration.