Isolation of bisphenol a-degrading bacteria, Pseudomonas sp. from Shah Alam soil

Soil is a mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids and numerous organisms that together support life on Earth. One gram of fertile soil can contain up to one billion bacteria and most of these bacteria are aerobic. In this research project, I have decided to collect three soil samples from three different locations in Shah Alam. The soils then will undergo serial dilution to obtain 10-5 of soil solution. This diluted solution then will be streaked on Pseudomonas Agar and incubated at 37oC for 24 hours. The purpose of conducting this streaking method on specific agar is because I want to isolate Pseudomonas sp.. Pseudomonas is a type of Gram-negative bacteria that can degrade BPA via a novel pathway involving oxidative skeletal rearrangement of the BPA. BPA is a highly biotoxic compound that kills many microorganisms at a low concentration. As the pure cultures successfully obtained, a study of a simple fermentation process in shake flask was conducted to see the ability of Pseudomonas sp. to degrade BPA at different concentrations; 10ppm, 20ppm, 30ppm, 40ppm and 50ppm. Besides that, pure cultures obtained also will undergo morphological study of the colony through Gram Staining process. Based on the results obtained, Pseudomonas sp. able to degrade BPA and use it as a source of energy for them to grow. The higher the amount of BPA, the greater the amount of biomass produced. It can be concluded that the research is successfully conducted within the allocated period.