Tolerance of pesticides and antibiotic resistance in bacteria isolated from wastewater-irrigated soil

A total of 64 bacterial isolates (40 Pseudomonas spp., 12 Azotobacter and 12 Rhizobium spp.) were characterized on the basis of morphological, cultural and biochemical characteristics. All the isolates were tested for their tolerance to the pesticides endosulfan, carbofuran, and malathion. 12.5% of the Pseudomonas isolates from soil tolerated concentrations of 1600 μg malathion ml whereas 7.5% of isolates tolerated the same concentration of carbofuran. However, Pseudomonas isolates demonstrated a tolerance limit to endosulfan at a concentration of 800 μg/ml. Asymbiotic N2-fixers (Azotobacter) and symbiotic N2-fixers (Rhizobium spp.) were also able to tolerate concentrations of pesticides up to 1600 μg/ml. All the isolates were further tested for their antibiotic susceptibility against seven different antibiotics, nalidixic acid, cloxacillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, amoxycillin, methicillin, doxycycline. 100% of the Pseudomonas isolates were resistant to cloxacillin and 57.5% were resistant to methicillin. 7.5% of the isolates exhibited multiple resistance to five different antibiotics in three different combinations whereas 25% of the isolates showed multiple resistance to four different antibiotics in seven different combinations. Some of the resistant isolates were also screened for plasmid DNA and found to harbour a single plasmid.