African Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 5(28), pp. 4987-4992, 30 November, 2011 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJMR ISSN 1996-0808 ©2011 Academic Journals DOI: 10.5897/AJMR11.505 Full Length Research Paper Characterisation of Bacillus strains from volcanic area Gunung Sibayak able to degrade 2,2-dichloropropionic acid Damia Diyana Roslan 1 , Ronnie G. Gicana 2 , Robert J. Lamis 2 and Fahrul Huyop 1 * 1 Department of Industrial Biotechnology, Faculty of Biosciences and Bioengineering, University Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. 2 College of Arts and Sciences, University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, 6100 Bacolod City, Philippines. Accepted 8 November, 2011 Halogenated compounds are mainly found in agricultural area. The problem arose because these compounds are toxic to human and are persistent in environment. The aim of the present study was to isolate 2,2-dichloropropionic acid (2,2-DCP) degrading bacteria that can grow at higher temperature rather than at normal 25 to 30°C temperature. A soil bacterium was isolated from the surrounding volcanic area at the feet of Gunung Sibayak, Indonesia using streak plate method. The sample was repeatedly streaked onto 20 mM of 2,2-DCP to get a pure culture. The culture was incubated for 2 days at 30, 40 and 60°C incubator shaker aerobically. The isolated bacterium grew best at 40°C but failed to grow at 60°C. Based on partial 16S rDNA gene sequence, the isolated strain GS1 showed high sequence identity to Bacillus megaterium strain 0 to 2, whereas, using biochemical tests suggested that the genus belongs to Bacillus sp. as expected. Strain GS1 was a Gram positive, rod in shape and produced spore. The results also suggested that, strain GS1 could degrade 20 mM (2,2-DCP) based on growth experiment. In conclusion, the molecular method identified Bacillus genus showing no discrepencies from the biochemical test results. This is the first report of Bacillus strains associated with 2,2-DCP degradation using above normal temperature for growth. Key words: 2,2-Dichloropropionic, Bacillus strain GS1, degradation, 16S rDNA and pollutant. INTRODUCTION Halogenated compounds constitute the most important class of xenobiotic which mostly make up pollution. Some of these compounds are very toxic and cause enormous problems to human health and to the environment (van Pee and Unversucht, 2003). Several microorganisms reported to utilize 2-halogenated alkanoic acids as a sole carbon source have been isolated (Jing and Huyop, 2008; Ismail et al., 2008; Jing et al., 2008; Thasif et al., 2009; Mesri et al., 2009). The bacterial degradation of 2-haloalkanoic acids is attributed to an enzyme, dehalogenase, which catalyzes the hydrolytic removal of halogens from 2-haloalkanoic acids *Corresponding author. E-mail: fzhutm@gmail.com. Tel: +607 5534556. Fax: +607 5531112. (Kurihara, 2011). Previous studies also described cloning of dehalogenase in E. coli system for dehalogenase enzyme characterization (Cairns et al., 1996; Stringfellow et al., 1997; Yusn and Huyop, 2009; Huyop et al., 2008). Some halogenated chemicals are easily biodegradable for example 2-chloropropionate that can be enriched from almost any oil sample (Leisinger, 1996). This study initially screened the ability of bacteria in soil sample from volcanic area of Gunung Sibayak to grow at high temperature in the presence of α-haloalkanoate. Research interests are geared towards understanding microbial growth at higher temperature as enzymes from thermophillic organisms often show stability to a number of extrinsic factors such as temperatures and organic solvents. These properties make them useful for industrial biocatalyse (Rye et al., 2009). In this paper we report the isolation and identification of