Biodegradation of endosulfan by Aspergillus niger isolated from cotton fields of Punjab,Pakistan

The study was designed to isolate an efficient fungal strain which can be used for biodegradation of the endosulfan in the soils and water bodies. four fungal strains (ae,be,ce,de) were isolated from 150 soil samples collected from different cotton fields of punjab and were screened further to check their potential for the biodegradation of endosulfan. the fungal strain ae showed highest degradation rate of endosulfan (98.6%) in four days of incubation at 30°c. the fungal strain ae was identified initially on morphological basis and was confirmed subsequently as aspergillus niger on the basis of 18s rdna technique. the conditions for the degradation of endosulfan by strain ae were optimized at the lab scale so that they can be further applied for field trials. it was notices that aspergillus niger strain ae completely degraded 0.1% of endosulfan using 2ml of spore inoculum at ph 4 within four days of incubation at 30°c. © 2015,pakistan botanical society. all rights reserved.