Degradation of carbofuran by enrichment cultures and pure cultures of bacteria from flooded soils

Abstract

Enrichment cultures obtained from three flooded soils after repeated additions of carbofuran or its hydrolysis product, carbofuran phenol, effected a more rapid degradation of carbofuran in a mineral salts medium than the cultures from the respective soils never before exposed to carbofuran or carbofuran phenol. Rhizosphere soil suspension, phyllosphere suspension and guttation fluid from rice plants grown on carbofuran-treated fields were more active in degrading carbofuran than the corresponding samples from untreated fields. Bacteria isolated from carbofuran- and carbaryl-amended soils decomposed carbofuran in a mineral salts medium, but more rapidly in the absence than in the presence of an additional nitrogen source, (NH₄)₂HPO₄. Interestingly, even enrichment cultures showed a lag in the degradation of carbofuran.