eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 0973-1245 2016-04-15 6 1 181 187 8088 article Anjali Janbandhu 1 M. H. Fulekar* 1 Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Life Sciences, University of Mumbai, Santacruz (E), Mumbai - 400 098 (India) The petrochemical industry waste disposal site located at Nagpur, Maharashtra has been studied for the characterization of waste and to identify the potential microorganism from the microbial consortium. In the present study physico-chemical as well as biological parameters including microbial consortium present in the contaminated soil were examined. In order to identify potential microorganism from the consortium, the organic compounds with special reference to naphthalene was exposed to microbial consortium at increasing concentration viz. 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg/l. The single colony of microorganism was found capable of degrading naphthalene up to 100 mg/l, when naphthalene was provided as a sole source of carbon. This bacterium was identified as “Achromobacter insolitus” using 16S rDNA sequencing and phylogenetic tree. This organism can be used for bioremediation of organic compounds such as naphthalene. https://www.biotech-asia.org/vol6no1/characterization-of-pah-contaminated-soil-for-isolation-of-potential-microorganism-capable-of-degrading-naphthalene/ Bioremediation; naphthalene; Achromobacter insolitus