Enhanced degradation of carbofuran by Pseudomonas cepacia and Nocardia sp. in the presence of growth factors

Abstract

Pseudomonas cepacia and aNocardia sp., isolated from flooded alluvial soil amended with carbofuran, metabolized ring-¹⁴C-carbofuran fairly rapidly in mineral salts medium or soil extract, supplemented with yeast extract. When the two isolates were incubated with soil extract together with 500 μg ml^-1 yeast extract, about 40 to 62% of the radioactivity was recovered as water-soluble products. The degradation of carbofuran byNocardia sp. led to the formation of coloured, water-soluble and non-extractable metabolites.