Production of Fungal Laccase from Beer Industry Waste and Its Application in Biodegradation of Pesticides

Persistence of xenobiotic residues in environment due to exaggerated application of pesticides in agricultural fields has disturbed the balance in ecosystem. Many bacteria and fungi have been reported to produce laccases capable of degrading toxic and structurally complex chemicals. The issue has been focused by emphasizing on the biological remediation methods using fungal enzyme as compared to non-affordable physicochemical treatments. Considering this scenario, the present work has been carried out using fungal laccase in degradation of pesticides. Laccase enzyme production was carried out using Aspergillus nidulans with substrate as spent grains. Partially purified enzyme was subjected to pesticide degradation studies. In this work, fourteen commercial grade pesticides were subjected to Aspergillus nidulans mediated degradation. Plates showing growth of Aspergillus nidulans in presence of pesticides were selected for further degradation. Nine pesticides were screened for degradation studies. Maximum Degradation was observed for Spinosad, followed by Dichlorovos, and Captra, with 52.51%, 29.78% and 24.04% degradation respectively using UV Spectrophotometeric analysis. Considerable reduction of pesticides from agricultural samples i.e. cabbage was 81.5% and for grapes was found to be 43.1%. On the basis of present findings Aspergillus nidulans strain can be exploited as a potential agent to protect the environment from hazardous pesticides and deleterious effects of the residue.