Detecting tolerance in Pseudomonas fluorescens to pesticides

The present study is aimed at examining the effect of pesticides viz, fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and antibiotics on Pseudomonas fluorescens to see its tolerance level against these pesticides. Herbicides were found most adaptive to Pseudomonas fluorescens as compared to fungicides, insecticides and antibiotics. Tolerance level was found high in Pseudomonas fluorescens against Spinosad @ 0.04% (9.02 × 10⁸ cfu/ml) and Imidacloprid @ 0.02% (5.82 × 10⁸ cfu/ml). P.fluorescens was found less sensitive to Thiram @ 0.2% (2.15 × 10⁸ cfu/ml), Benomyl @ 0.3% (1.63 × 10⁸ cfu/ml) and Carbendazim @ 0.1% (1.38 × 10⁸ cfu/ml). However, it tolerated the toxicity of Pendamethalin up to 0.4% concentration. Although bacterium was adaptive to herbicides, it was found highly sensitive to antibiotics Streptomycin alone and also in combination with Tetracycline @ 0.01% concentration.