Pseudomonas putida: An Environment Friendly Bacterium 137

the rice rhizospheric soil and mutated for improved production of laccase enzyme using UV and

chemical mutation. The mutant strain E4 was a hyper producer of laccase with 34.12 U.L^–1 with

8.09 percent yield (Verma et al. 2016). Another strain of P. putida 922 was optimized to produce

lipase with 24 U ml yield of enzyme in 48 hr (Khan et al. 2014). Along with chemical fertilizers

P. putida have improved the production of soil enzyme and thereby improving crop yield (Nosheen

et al. 2018).

8.5 Conclusion

The growing population will only continue to grow adding a large amount of waste that may not

be degraded by natural degraders. As a result, the environment is in desperate need of remediation.

Remediation can be accomplished in a number of ways. Using biological organisms or products

to do the same is the most cost effective and least harmful to the environment. This is referred to

as bioremediation. This chapter describes how P. putida can be used as a bioremediation tool. It

is a very robust soil organism that is relatively easy to genetically modify. P. putida is rod shape,

gram-negative motile bacteria, ubiquitous in the environment, especially in pollutant-contaminated

water and soil. It thrives on almost all the carbon skeletons including plastic (Vague et al. 2019).

This organism is naturally equipped with various kinds of enzymes making them highly important

bacteria from the environmental point of view. Unlike E. coli, strains of P. putida are already adapted

to the soil environment. They can grow and degrade pollutants in the soil or groundwater more

easily. P. putida KT2440 has been bred to grow in anoxic conditions. As NADH produced during

metabolism must be re-oxidized, oxygen is required. This strain has also been genetically modified

to degrade pesticides (methyl parathion, chlorpyrifos, fenpropathrin, cypermethrin, carbofuran and

carbaryl) (Gong et al. 2018). Pseudomonas strains that are resistant to extreme temperatures, pH and

pressure can be created through further modification. As a result, the scope of bioremediation can

be expanded to include harsher conditions. Pseudomonas has a wide range of applications due to its

unique metabolism. It has demonstrated applications in both bioremediation and the production of

compounds that will aid in the reduction of reliance on petroleum products.

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