In vitro Studies on Biodegradation of Chlorpyrifos by Trichoderma viride and T. harzianum

Although a wide application of pesticides and herbicides are an essential part of augmenting crop yields, excessive use of these chemicals leads to the microbial imbalance of soil, environmental pollution and health hazards to human and animals. An ideal pesticide should have the ability to destroy target pests quickly and should get degrade the toxic and nontoxic substances as quickly as possible, but some pesticides leaves residues without complete degradation. Among the methods of degradation, soil microorganisms especially fungi play a vital role in degrading pesticides, thus preventing the environmental pollution and preserve the soil fertility. In the present study, the microbial degradation of chlorpyrifos a organophosphorus chemical by using Trichoderma viride and T. harzianum and its consortium was attempted in vitro and their performance was compared. T. viride, T. harzianum and its consortium were observed to be able to grow in fungal culture medium in the presence of added 20% chlorpyrifos (125ìl/100ml of medium) and it showed increase level of biomass production and protein. The results of the study reports that T. viride and T. harzianum posses the ability to degrade the Chlorpyrifos remarkably. However the result shows the consortium of these fungi possess low ability to degrade chlorpyrifos comparing to their individualistic performance in the order Trichoderma viride, T. harzianum and Consortium. The results of the growth of fungi and degradation level of chlorpyrifos were discussed in detail.