Biodegradation of Prazosin by Bacillus sp. Isolated from PPCPs Contaminated River in Malaysia

Abstract

Prazosin (PRZ) is a type of drug used to treat hypertension. It is found to contaminate the aquatic environment, therefore has substantial threats to the ecosystem and human health. PRZ has been found to contaminate rivers in Malaysia which is presumed due to excretion and inappropriate disposal. A tropical bacterium, PR5 has been isolated from a PRZ contaminated site in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It has demonstrated its capabilities to utilize PRZ as a nutrient source and efficiently degrade PRZ. UPLC-TUV is used to measure PRZ concentration during growing cell assay and the results showed that isolate PR5 able to degrade 78% of 0.01 mM PRZ within 7 days of incubation. Species identification based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed isolate PR5 has a 99.66% similarity with Bacillus velezensis. This study reports on the first finding of PRZ biodegradation by Bacillus velezensis.