Classical methods of treatment of Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in environmental matrices are giving way to bioremediation techniques. As a result, bacterial samples from microbial communities adapted to PCBs are being isolated and characterized to assess their suitability for use in removing PCBs from various environmental media. This study therefore sought to isolate and characterize suitable bacteria from two samples, namely, an ash sample from an incinerator site and a soil sample from a transformer servicing site, and to assess their similarity to bacteria identified in similar studies. After culturing bacteria from the two samples, growth was observed only in the sample from the transformer servicing site. Growing cultures were sub-cultured, after which a cocktail of tests were carried out on the growing isolates, including gram staining, biochemical tests, and MALDI-ToF analyses. Afterwards, the DNA of the isolates were extracted, and specific fragments of the bacterial DNA were amplified by polymerase chain reaction technique using primer pairs customized for detection of the 2,3-biphenyl dioxygenase gene responsible for PCB degradation. Among the species identified in this study were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus mycoides, Bacillus cereus and Citrobacter murliniae

Keywords: Bioremediation, polychlorinated biphenyls, biochemical, DNA, polymerase, primer pairs