Team:NAU-CHINA/Description
The project is aiming to design an engineered bacteria that can degrade 3-PBA thoroughly (as shown in picture1) and efficiently in about 3 days.
3-PBA, the main metabolite in the degradation of insecticide pyrethroids (widely used for insect control in agriculture industry), is typically detected as a vital environmental contaminant and half-life of 3-phenoxybenzoate (3-PBA) in soil is 180 days (conventional pesticides is 30 days).
Microbial biodegradation is valued for its environment-friendly method to eliminate pollution. It is noted that sphingobium wenxiniae JZ-1 is able to degrade 3-PBA into 3-hydroxybenzoate(3-HBA) in 3 days and Klebsiella pneumoniae M5a1 can convert 3—HBA to pyruvate and fumarate via gentisate.
Employing microbial biodegradation techniques to degrade 3-PBA is both feasible and worthy of research.
Picture 1 Process of 3-PBA Degradation
