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Carbendazim (methyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-ylcarbamate, or MBC) is a benzimidazole fungicide which is used to protect crops against the attack of fungi. MBC has a half-life of about 3-12 months and remain persistent in the environment which may lead to many harmful consequences. Besides chemical and photo-catalytic degradation of pesticides, microbial degradation has now been evolved as a much effective and safer way to eliminate these harmful compounds from the environment. However, in the literature very few reports are available where microbial community is involved in degrading MBC. Hence, the present study was planned to investigate the role of microbes isolated from the field soils for the bioremediation of MBC. Soil samples were collected from wheat fields of northern regions of India. Enrichment culture technique was employed to isolate the bacterium which was found to be growing at higher concentrations of MBC up to 500 µg/ml. After biochemical and morphological analysis, the bacterium was identified as Streptomyces albogriseolus. Streptomyces albogriseolus was found to degrade MBC in a time-dependent manner from the initial concentration of 29 ppm to 285.67ppb and 62.73ppb in 24hrs and 48hrs respectively. LCMS-MS analysis was carried out to detect 2-aminobenzimidazole, a metabolite formed after degradation in 10 hrs of growth which eventually disappeared after 24hrs of growth. The strain Streptomyces albogriseolus holds a promising potential to be an efficient MBC bioremediation agent.

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