A Novel Nicotine-Degrading Bacterium Pseudomonasfluorescens Strain 1206

A highly effective nicotine-degrading bacterial strain 1206 was isolated and identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens according to its morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Strain P. fluorescens 1206 could utilize nicotine as the sole carbon and nitrogen source and degrade nicotine while growing in Luria-Bertani medium. This bacterium was able to remove about 33.8, 82.5 and 97.1% of nicotine with initial concentration of 1 g/L after 8, 16 and 24 h of incubation, respectively. This is the first report on the isolation and characterization of a strain of P. fluorescens with high-degrading nicotine ability. This finding may open the way to new biotechnological application of P. fluorescens to degradation of nicotine.