Among aromatic compounds, phenol is known as a common constituent of soil and wastes contaminated from many industries including oil refineries, pharmaceutical, petroleum, textiles and coal refining etc. The toxicity of phenol causes negative effects to human, environment, fauna and aquatic organisms. Several studies have been done to find the promissing bacteria for the biodegradation of phenol. Therefore, isolation, selection and identification bacterial strains capable of degrading phenol to form the basis of an environmental cleaning solution by biological methods is an urgent need. In this study, soils contaminated with gasoline from Cantho city, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh and Soc Trang provinces were collected. The bacterial strains were isolated in MSB medium (Minerral basal salts) with phenol as sole source of carbon. The result showed that thirty seven bacterial strains capaple of degrading phenol were isolated from soil and waste water in Tra Vinh, Vinh Long, Can Tho and Soc Trang provinces. Among them, 35 strains were rod shape, 2 trains were globular shape; 34/37 strains were motile, 3/37 strains were not motile; 29/37 trains were gram negative, 8/37 trains were gram positive. P3, P10 and P36 could degrade phenol the best. After seven days in the medium containing 0,5 g/L of phenol, P3, P10 and P36 could degrade phenol at 39,8%, 95,2% and 83,2%, respectively. Strain P3 could synthesize amylase, cellulase and lipase while strains P10 and P36 could synthesize cellulase, lipase and protease. The results of 16S rRNA sequencing analysis showed that P3 strain was Peanibacillus sp. and P10 and P36 were Rhodococcus sp.

          Keywords: Biodegradation, Paenibacillus sp., phenol-degrading bacteria, Rhodococcus sp., 16S rRNA.