Abstract

Yan Wang, Yanchun Hu, Jianhua Wang*, Yongtao Yu, Yumin Song, Guodong Yang and Guoxia Geng

The aim of this study was to isolate bacteria capable of degrading swainsonine, an indolizidine alkaloid in poisonous plants of Oxytropis and Astragalus. The bacterium HW08 was isolated and enriched from soil and its physiological and biochemical properties, 16S rRNA gene and the ability of swainsoninedegradation were investigated. The results showed that HW08 was a species of Arthrobacter sp. Under the optimized temperature (30°C) and pH value (7.0), HW08 (OD600 = 0.3) could degrade about 2 mg swainsonine in 5 ml degrading reaction within 4 h. In conclusion, HW08 would be a better potential candidate to be considered for SW-degrading in practice