A pyrethroid insecticide-degrading bacterium, strain HS-24, was isolated from an offshore seawater environment. The strain, which can degrade cypermethrin （CYP） and deltamethrin （DEL）, was identified as Methylophaga sp. The optimal culture and degradation conditions for CYP and DEL by strain HS-24 is pH 7 at 28℃. Under optimum culture conditions, strain HS-24 exhibited a broad degradation concentration range of 100, 200, 400, 600, and 800 mg/L for CYP and DEL. The metabolic intermediates were analyzed by NMR, which provided strong evidence that CYP and DEL removal occurred mainly because of a biological process. The toxicity of the degradation products of strain HS-24 was studied simultaneously by measuring the light output of the luminescence bacterium. This demonstrated that the biodegradation ability of strain HS-24 significantly decreased the toxicity of CYP- and DEL-contaminated aquaculture seawater. Finally, the findings of this paper indicate that strain HS-24 is thus revealed as a biological agent for the remediation of marine aquatic environments.
