Isolation and characterization of 23 carbofuran-degrading bacteria from soils from distant geographical areas

The aim of this work was to isolate, identify and type carbofuran-degrading bacteria from two geographically distant soils. Restriction Fragment Lengt h Polymorphism (RFLP) patterns of the 16S rRNA gene and partial 16S rRNA se quence analysis were used to classify the 23 isolates obtained. Nine of the m showed high similarity to Pseudomonas strains, seven showed similarity to the Flexibacter/Cytophaga/Bacteroides group and the remainder showed simil arity to other bacterial genera. Isolates within the same group were sub-ty ped by comparing partial 16S rRNA sequences and SDS-PAGE analysis of their total protein profiles. Many of the UK isolates showed similarity to the Ps eudomonas genera, while most of the Greek isolates showed similarity to the Flexibacter/Cytophaga/Bacteroides group. Only two Chrysobacterium strains isolated from both the UK and Greek soils were identical.