Effective Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Degrading Rhizobacteria with PGP Traits from Plants Growing on Fly Ash in the Premises of Thermal Power Station?Kothagudem, Telangana State, India

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) degrading rhizobacteria with plant growth promoting (PGP) traits play key roles in rhizoremediation systems. Their isolation from various PAHs contaminated sites is amenable for effective PAHs remediation. In our study, we have isolated 6 (six) PAHs degrading rhizobacteria from the plants growing on fly ash released from thermal power station (TPS) of Kothagudem located in Paloncha, Khammam district, Telangana state, India. The isolates were screened for the degradation of three test PAHs such as phenanthrene, anthracene and pyrene and identified that the isolates have the capabilities to degrade more than one type of PAHs in minimal salt medium (MSM) when enriched with three PAHs. The isolates again screened for their abilities to produce PGP traits such as ammonia, HCN, IAA and the enzymes like phosphatase, protease, chitinase and cellulase. Among the screened six isolates the isolate R1, produced good qualities of PAHs degradation and PGP traits. Thus isolate R1 was further assayed for characterization and identification. The characterization was proceeded with morphological, biochemical and molecular methods. The compilation of characterization data helped us to identify the isolate as Bacillus subtilis SPC14.