Characterization of deltamethrin degradation and metabolic pathway by co-culture of Acinetobacter junii LH-1-1 and Klebsiella pneumoniae BPBA052

Abstract Deltamethrin and its major metabolite 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3‐PBA) have caused serious threat to the environment as well as human health, yet little is known about their degradation pathways by bacterial co-cultures. In this study, the growth and degradation kinetics of Acinetobacter junii LH-1-1 and Klebsiella pneumoniae BPBA052 during deltamethrin and 3-PBA degradation were established, respectively. When the inoculum proportion of the strains LH-1-1 and BPBA052 was 7.5:2.5, and LH-1-1 was inoculated 24 h before inoculation of strain BPBA052, 94.25% deltamethrin was degraded and 9.16 mg/L of 3-PBA remained within 72 h, which was 20.36% higher and 10.25 mg/L lesser than that in monoculture of LH-1-1, respectively. And the half-life of deltamethrin was shortened from 38.40 h to 24.58 h. Based on gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, 3-phenoxybenzaldehyde, 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic butyl dacyl ester, and phenol were identified as metabolites during deltamethrin degradation in co-culture. This is the first time that a co-culture degradation pathway of deltamethrin has been proposed based on these identified metabolites. Bioremediation of deltamethrin-contaminated soils with co-culture of strains LH-1-1 and BPBA052 significantly enhanced deltamethrin degradation and 3-PBA removal. This study provides a platform for further studies on deltamethrin and 3-PBA biodegradation mechanism in co-culture, and it also proposes a promising approach for efficient bioremediation of environment contaminated by pyrethroid pesticides and their associated metabolites.