Pseudomonas putida
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| iPseudomonas putida | ||||||||||||||
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| Pseudomonas putida Trevisan, 1889 |
Pseudomonas putida is a flagellated rod-shaped bacterium that has the ability to degrade organic solvents. These solvents include toluene, in gasoline. This ability has been put to use in bioremediation, or the use of microorganisms to biodegrade oil. P. putida is a safe strain of bacteria, unlike P. aeruginosa, a human pathogen.
[edit] Uses
In early 2006, researchers from University College, Dublin discovered that P. putida is capable of converting styrene oil into the biodegradable plastic PHA. This may be of use in the effective recycling of Polystyrene foam, otherwise thought to be non-biodegradable.
This bacterium is also used as a soil innoculant in agriculture and horticulture.
Research was conducted on this strain of bacteria by Dr Munawar Hussain, MSc project, at Imperial College in 1986.
[edit] References
