Chlordane Biodegradation Under Aerobic Conditions by Actinobacteria Strains

Abstract

Chlordane is organic compound that remain intact in the environment for long periods, which enables their wide geographical distribution. They accumulate in the fatty tissue of living organisms and their toxicity has been proven in humans and wildlife/animals. Is an organochlorine pesticide that has been used worldwide, especially during the early 1980s, on farmlands, home lawns and in gardens, and also as a termiticide for house foundations, commercially available technical-grade chlordane is a mixture of over 140 different but related compounds the three most common components are -(cis-) chlordane, -(trans-) chlordane and trans-nonachlor. Many of the chlordane components and their metabolites are ubiquitous and persistent and have a tendency for biomagnification. They have shown toxicity in higher animals; they are suspected to be carcinogenic and may have estrogenic activities. However, to date little fundamental research on chlordane biodegradation has been carried out, and in particular, there exist only very few studies on the degradation pathways or degradation products of this compound. Therefore, the importance of the chapter was demonstrate that indigenous actinobacteria strains isolated from contaminated environments in Argentina were be able to remove and degrade technical-grade chlordane from culture medium and soil samples under aerobic conditions.