SCREENING AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PESTICIDE – MICROBE DYNAMICS FROM PHYLLOSPHERE OF OKRA AND EGGPLANT

Abstract

Agroecosystems and phyllosphere microbiomes can be the potential indicators of differential segregation expected for organic and pesticide-sprayed fields. The pesticide interaction with the niche phyllosphere microbiota would serve to convey the characteristic role of the phyllosphere in biomass changes, degradation profiling, and approximation of the synthetic residues contributing towards further complexation with soil microbiome. We present the effects of differential spraying of Chlorpyrifos and Cypermethrin pesticides on the phyllosphere of Okra and Eggplant compared with control plants. Highly sensitive and discrete analysis using GC-MS and microbial enrichment followed by 16s RNA identification were conducted to report the overall biochemical and molecular quantifications on the selected plants. GC-MS studies indicate the rate at which pesticides dissipate from plants over time. In our study, dissipation was followed for 10 and 16 days, where chlorpyrifos disappeared by 95% after 16 days in okra plants, while it disappeared by 92% after 10 days in eggplants. Similarly, after 16 days, cypermethrin vanished completely from okra and it had reduced by 89% after 10 days from eggplant. The prolonged periods of pesticide dissipation indicating danger to both humans and animals led researchers to investigate the role of bacteria from polluted surfaces in accelerating the breakdown of pesticides as these are difficult to break down naturally. Scientific studies evidently configure that in contrast to plants not exposed to pesticides, bacterial proliferation on plants exposed to pesticides is enhanced. Our study design implies pesticide – microbe dynamics with survival strategies employing pesticides for their growth on plant phyllosphere.