Microbial biodegradation of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene

In this study, biological degradation of TNT which is very high toxicity for environmental and an explosive in nitroaromatic character was researched in minimal medium by four bacteria isolated from soils of NATO and Kilis. The amount of TNT contaminant in these soils was detected by HPLC and colorimetric analyses.The amounts of TNT in liquid-liquid extraction of samples taken from biodegradation media at periyodic intervals were determined by HPLC analyses. Chemical degradation that is occurred in abiotic media containing 50 ve 75 ppm TNT was determined respectively as 16% and 13%. However, reduction of TNT in minimal media which containing 50 ppm TNT of AD1, AD2, AD3 and AD4 isolates were detected respectively 46%, 35%, 68% and 29%; these percentages in minimal media containing 75 ppm TNT were 59%, 45%, 77% ve 41% at the end of the incubation period of 96 hours. Besides, during biodegradation accumulation of nitrite and nitrate were examined by spectrophotometric analyses in bacterial and abiotic media. While nitrite production was observed in cultures of AD1 and AD3 isolates and abiotic media, nitrate was detected none of the cultures. Identification of degradation productions were performed by TLC ve GC-MS analyses. Accumulations of 2,4-DNT and 4-ADNT in cultures of AD1 and AD3; 4-ADNT in cultures of AD2 ve AD4 were determined.