Bioremediation of Neonicotinoid Pesticide, Imidacloprid, Mediated by Bacillus cereus

Farah Naz Talpur; Ahsanullah Unar; Sana Kanwal Bhatti; Laila Alsawalha; Dalia Fouad; Humaira Bashir; Hassan Imran Afridi; Farid Shokry Ataya; Ohoud A Jefri; Muhammad Sohail Bashir

doi:10.3390/bioengineering10080951

Bioremediation of Neonicotinoid Pesticide, Imidacloprid, Mediated by Bacillus cereus

Bioengineering (Basel). 2023 Aug 10;10(8):951. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering10080951.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Jamshoro 76080, Pakistan.
² School of Life Sciences, University of Sciences and Technology of China, Hefei 230052, China.
³ Faculty of Science, Zarqa University, Zarqa 13110, Jordan.
⁴ Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 22452, Riyadh 11495, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Botany, University of the Punjab, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, 54590 Lahore, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah 2158, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China.
⁹ Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.

Abstract

Imidacloprid, a toxic pesticide of the chloronicotinyl category, is employed extensively in agricultural fields, and its exposure causes serious health issues. Biodegradation is considered to be a green and economical approach to remediate pesticides. Herein, imidacloprid degradation efficiency of Bacillus sp. is highlighted, among which Bacillus cereus exhibited the greatest degradation; optimization of experimental variables (pH, imidacloprid and agitation time) via Box-Behnken factorial design and analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed 92% biodegradation at the initial substrate concentration of 0.03 mM, aerobically in 11 days under favorable pH 7. The subsequent metabolites, identified through liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, were 5-hydroxy imidacloprid, imidacloprid-guanidine and 6-chloronicotinic acid.

Keywords: Bacillus cereus; degradation; imidacloprid; metabolites.

Grants and funding

Departmental facilities of NCEAC, University of Sindh, were utilized to accomplish the research work. The authors extend their appreciation to the Deputyship for Research & Innovation, “Ministry of Education” in Saudi Arabia for funding this research (IFKSUOR3-567-1).