Abstract
Anthracene is a low molecular weight polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) being identified as a precedence toxic contaminant in the ecosystem. Thus, the present work was designed to evaluate anthracene biodegradation efficiency by selected marine bacteria. From the marine isolates, the most effective anthracene biodegrading strain was identified as Sphingomonas sp., KSU05. Time course batch growth results indicated that the isolate KSU05 was capable of surviving up to 500 mg/L of anthracene. The influence of various nutrient sources were screened for enhanced growth and pyrene degradation, based on results glucose and tween-80 were used for further optimization studies. Batch experimental analysis showed maximum biodegradation (70.5%) of anthracene (50 mg/L) with enhanced survival of Sphingomonas sp. KSU05 was observed at 96 h of cultivation. Box-Behnken design optimization results showed that the culture conditions enhanced the anthracene biodegradation (90.0%) at pH 7.0, 0.3 mM of tween-80 concentration, and 5.5% of glucose concentration. In addition, the isolate Sphingomonas sp. KSU05 was found to rapidly degrade anthracene within 96 h. The anthracene intermediates was analyzed using Gas chromatography mass spectrophotometer (GC-MS). Overall, this research shown that the Sphingomonas sp., cultivated with suggested optimum conditions could provide an effective prospective for the degradation of anthracene from contaminated environment.