Degradation potential of soil borne fungal species against pesticides

Authors

  • Nazish Manzoor Department of Microbiology, Kohat University of Science & Technology, Kohat
  • Yashfa Haziq
  • Zulqarnain Directorate of Soil and Plant Nutrition, Agricultural Research Institute, Tarnab, Peshawar
  • Arbaz Khan
  • Zahir Shah
  • I. Jan
  • Umar Shehzad
  • Mansoor Kohat University of Science and Technology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52292/j.laar.2026.3301

Keywords:

Biodegradation, HPLC, Fungal species, Pesticides

Abstract

In this study, earlier isolated fungal strains from soil were retrieved from the fungal data bank of KUST. Molecular characterization of the strains according to the sequencing of 18S rDNA and phylogenetic tree analysis identified the strains as ZN1 and ZN2.  Notably, the fungal strains demonstrated the ability to degrade commonly used pesticides, including lambda-cyhalothrin, atrazine, bifenthrin, and imidacloprid. Strain ZN2 degraded lambda-cyhalothrin by 82 % at day 15, while ZN1 showed no clear effect. By day 15, ZN1 degraded atrazine (65 %) and bifenthrin (68 %), whereas ZN2 degraded only bifenthrin (23 %). At day 30, bifenthrin degradation increased to 80 %. In soil experiment, the strain ZN1, degraded atrazine (76 %), lambda-cyhalothrin (35 %), and imidacloprid (35%). In contrast, ZN2 degraded lambda-cyhalothrin (72 %), atrazine (68 %), bifenthrin (65 %), and imidacloprid (25 %), showing time-dependent variation between strains. This unique ability of fungal strains emphasizes their significance as effective and sustainable bioremediation agents that can potentially help reduce environmental contamination caused by harmful agrochemicals.

Downloads

Published

2026-01-23

Issue

Vol. 56 No. 1 (2026): Latin American Applied Research

Section

Applied Chemistry

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Latin American Applied Research - An international journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Once a paper is accepted for publication, the author is assumed to have transferred its copyright to the Publisher. The Publisher will not, however, put any limitation on the personal freedom of the author to use material from the paper in other publications. From September 2019 it is required that authors explicitly sign a copyright release form before their paper gets published. The Author Copyright Release form can be found here

Most read articles by the same author(s)